Chuck versus LuthorCorp
by a-delacroix
Summary: Add Chap 7 - Since Kristin Kreuk guest starred on Chuck, I thought a Chuck/Smallville X-over story would be fun. Although it is turning into more of a Chuck/DC comics X-over. Spoilers thru Smallville Season 8 Episode 14 and Chuck Mid-Season 2.
1. Chapter 1

10/10/09

Chuck versus LuthorCorp

Author's Notes

The usual disclaimer – Both Chuck and Smallville are, unfortunately, owned by someone else.

Hi! Since Kristin Kreuk is joining Chuck for Season 3, I thought a Chuck/Smallville crossover story would be fun. Although what I have in mind is more of a Chuck/Lana Lang crossover. Now, from what I have seen, Lana gets diss'ed a lot on the internet forums. Personally, I don't think the issue is with the character of Lana or with Kristin's acting abilities, but rather the annoying way the writers have portrayed her relationship with Clark. And since I don't intend to have Clark in this story, I don't think that issue should be a problem. Well, Clark may not actually be in the story, but at least in the beginning Lana may experience some angst over her relationship with him for simple continuity's sake.

This story begins shortly after Smallville's Season 8 Episode 14, 'Requiem'. For those of you who are not hardcore Smallville fans, and as a brief refresher for those who are, here is a little background to set up the story.

Lana and Clark first got together way back in high school about eight years before the start of this story. They have had an on-and-off relationship ever since although Lana has had a number of other relatively long term relationships along the way. Her first boy friend, technically pre-Clark, was Whitney Fordman. He ended up dead. Then a couple years later there was Jason Teague, who she met in Paris. He ended up dead. Then she married and divorced Lex Luthor, who . . . wait for it . . . is now apparently DEAD. Sensing a pattern here?

The underlying problem in Lana and Clark's relationship during the first five or six years was the big 'secret' of Clark's heritage. Clark just would never man up and tell her the truth even though it seemed like half the town knew and sometimes he would blurt it out five minutes after meeting someone, but with Lana it just drug on and on. Around the sixth year of their relationship Lana finally learns about Clark's abilities and that would seem to solve everything, but of course it didn't. Oh, their friendship is more solid, but as a 'couple' things still didn't always click. However Lana wasn't stupid and came to realize things only really worked between them on those rare occasions when either she had acquired superpowers through some accident or when Clark's abilities had been stripped away. Only when they were on equal footing were they both truly happy.

So Lana set about acquiring permanent superpowers of her own. Oh, she made a lot of noises, and perhaps even somewhat convinced herself, that the superpowers would be for the benefit of mankind and also would be an important counter to Lex Luthor's grand evil designs, but deep down inside she knew she needed them to make a relationship with Clark work.

Lex, whose body had been seriously crippled in an accident, was secretly funding a project called 'Prometheus'. The concept was that his damaged skin would be permanently replaced with a 'nanosuit', which, while looking like normal human skin, would give him a range of superhuman abilities to rival Clark's. Lana, through her connections as the ex-Mrs. Luthor, managed to uncover the project and convinced the lead scientist, Dr. Edward Groll, to bestow the nanosuit on her instead. Through a long, extremely painful process, her skin was removed and the nanosuit was grafted into place.

Her abilities with the nanosuit have only been hinted at so far. Like Clark, she has the ability to move at an extremely accelerated pace that makes her effectively invisible and allows her to do things like catch bullets in mid-flight. She also has demonstrated super strength by ripping the armored door off a vault. On the positive side that is all that has been revealed, but I think some other positive attributes will probably be revealed over the course of this story. On the negative side, and the aspect that sets up the basic premise of this story, is that the nanosuit absorbs all Kryptonite it comes into contact with, while not harming the wearer. Unfortunately for Lana and Clark, Lex threatened to unleash a large Kryptonite-filled bomb that would have destroyed Metropolis. The only way to stop it was for Lana to absorb the Kryptonite, which meant forever after, close proximity of her Kryptonite charged nanosuit would be lethal to Clark. Unable to handle seeing Clark on a daily basis, but never able to touch him, Lana decided the only solution was to leave Metropolis.

On the Chuck side of things, I will admit while I have seen most episodes, I am not quite as much the hardcore fan. So I am going to say for the moment this story is set at some nebulous time during the second season after they get the secret underground command center and when Chuck, Sarah, and Casey are working more or less as a team. Assuming this story ends up like most of my others, it will probably head off on a tangent of its own, as I don't tend to worry much about maintaining continuity with the shows.

I think that is enough background for now, as I don't want the readers to get bored and give up before the story even begins!

Chapter 1

Part 1

Lana once again felt the tears welling up in her eyes. L.A. was supposed to be this bright, cheery place to help her forget Metropolis. However, cruising the late night streets utterly alone, it felt anything but. Perhaps she should have chosen Paris instead, but that would have only exchanged thoughts of Clark for the equally bittersweet memories of her time with Jason. Or perhaps she should have returned to Shanghai; she had been happy there for awhile. But with the gifts she had struggled so long and hard to acquire, she could make best use of them in a place where she spoke more than a smattering of the local language.

Fortunately, a sharp, staccato chirp from the car's enhanced navigation system gave her mind something to fix on besides thoughts of the life she and Clark should be sharing at this moment, but now, through the actions of Lex, never would.

With a quick glance over her shoulder, she slid the car into the right lane and then found an available parking spot less than a block further ahead. In only a few moments she was parked and able to give the display her full attention.

Lana had been in L.A. just over three weeks. After finding a luxury condo in a high rise in Westwood, she had acquired office space on Wilshire for 'Isis West', a base of operations for her plans to utilize her abilities to help those in need. One aspect of Isis West would certainly be to help the meteor rock infected and others with superhuman gifts, much like Chloe continued to do at the original Isis Foundation back in Metropolis. But L.A. didn't have nearly the quantity of cases Smallville and Metropolis had, and therefore she intended to provide help to normal people who were in trouble, too.

And to help her find the people who most immediately needed her help, she had had Chloe send her one of the three 'Brainiac-upgraded' computers Isis possessed. The machine had arrived just this afternoon and she was in the process of giving it its first test run.

At present the machine, hidden in a secret back room of Isis West, was tapped into all the major cellphone systems. It had the ability to access the microphone in every cellphone in the greater L.A. area, whether the phone was in use, in standby mode, or even turned off. Only the NSA's mainframes could rival the machine's data collection abilities, but for the moment Lana had it configured to only register the sound of gunshots. Via a complex algorithm involving the time it took the sound to reach various phones and the relative signal strength of the phones at the surrounding towers, the computer could pinpoint gunfire within a few feet and forward the data to the navigation system in Lana's car.

Lana studied the screen. The system was reporting twenty-three shots fired within a one block area in Pasadena in the last forty-seven seconds and even as she watched the count continued jumping up every couple of seconds. Whatever was going on had to be major, she thought, if that many rounds were being fired. Quickly, she shut down the engine and grabbed her satchel of gear from the passenger seat. The location was just over six miles from her current position and she could cover the distance a lot faster running than driving.

Sliding out of the car and easing the door shut, she hit the door lock button on her key fob as she made a mental note to talk to Chloe and see if she could help with a solution to miniaturize the computer interface to work in her phone or on a portable GPS. Then thoughts about her phone reminded her to stow it in the small Faraday bag she kept in her satchel; it wouldn't do to have someone else use a similar trick to track her movements through her own phone.

Lana took a moment to glance around before accelerating up into what she called 'Prometheus Time' after the name of the project which had created the nanosuit. Although calling it a 'suit' felt like such a misnomer, as it implied it was something that could be removed at will. But for good or bad, the nanosuit was as much a permanent part of her body now as the layer of skin it had replaced.

Mostly mollified no one was watching, as she didn't want tonight's activities to result in a public reputation like Clark's 'red-blue blur', Lana initiated the mental sequence which would shift her mind and nanosuit-equipped body into 'Prometheus Time'. From her perspective it felt like ten seconds passed while the traffic and everything else around her ground to a halt, but she knew to an outside observer those apparent ten seconds were actually less than a millisecond.

Slinging her satchel over her shoulder, she set off at a brisk run in the direction indicated by the navigation system. As she ran, she realized a portable nav system would have only limited utility. She could carry things while she was in P.T., but nothing outside her body truly shifted into that alternate time. So she would have to drop out of P.T. to use any normal electronics. After the month she had had the nanosuit, she was still learning its true capabilities and limitations.

And one of its truly miraculous capabilities was her ability to run nonstop for what felt like forever. At first when she had been exploring her capabilities with Clark back in Metropolis before 'the event', it felt like she was running at a six minute mile pace and could maintain it for mile after mile and hour after hour. But for extremely long distances the limitation had turned out to be mental stamina rather than physical stamina. Running a twenty-six mile marathon distance felt like three hours in P.T. just like it would in the real world. And running hundreds of miles? Forget about it. Or at least so she thought until she discovered the trick to put the nanosuit into quasi-autopilot mode and allow her mind to shift most of the way back towards real time. Now her nanosuit equipped body could cover the six miles to the location of the gun fire in eight milliseconds while it felt to her like twenty seconds rather than the forty minutes it would have in the beginning.

By the time Lana reached the scene of the activity, she felt a broad grin spreading across her face and helping to dispel many of her earlier gloomy thoughts. Even after a month, it was still fun and exhilarating to run at this incredible speed.

It hadn't been clear on the tiny navigation screen, but Lana found herself in familiar territory. She was less than a mile from the edge of the Cal Tech campus. She had made several recruiting trips to Cal Tech when she had been setting up some of the Isis Foundation's secret labs and hadn't been able to poach someone with the right background from LuthorCorp or Star Labs. Now she found herself in a light industrial park that she remembered was filled with small hi-tech startup and spin-off firms. This certainly wouldn't have been her first guess at the location of a major gun battle.

Shifting her mind back up to the full P.T. state, she resumed complete control of the nanosuit and slowed to a jog as she read the street signs. Finally, after three more blocks she spotted the sign for the side street she had been looking for. Maintaining her pace she jogged down the street to her right.

At three fifteen in the morning the street was almost completely deserted. Only two cars were visible in the next couple of blocks and they weren't parked in a normal manner. No, they were parked nose-to-nose in a Vee-pattern with the point of the Vee facing the street and other side straddling the driveway into one of the small parking lots. The arrangement struck Lana as odd until she approached a little closer and spotted three people crouched in the protective area between the cars.

And the cars were hardly what she expected to find involved in a major shootout. No, she had been expecting cop cars or large sedans or some flavor of the pimped out SUVs favored by drug dealers. Instead she saw one of the small electric cars used by the BuyMore Nerd Herders and a silver convertible Porsche 911.

Lana had expected it to be immediately obvious who were the 'good guys' and who were the 'bad guys' and therefore know who to help. But so far she hadn't spotted anyone except the three people by the cars, so she couldn't see anything to do but check them out first.

Quickly she ran around the cars and paused behind the three people. She had done some experiments with Chloe while she had still been back in Metropolis and knew that while she was in P.T. she would have to stand perfectly still for what felt like twenty minutes before she would appear visible to anyone nearby. So she had plenty of time to check these three out.

The three were two men and a woman. One man had a beefy build, looked in his upper thirties, and was wearing a green BuyMore shirt. The other man looked taller, younger, and ganglier and was wearing the white shirt and black tie of a Nerd Herder and even had one of their pocket protectors. The woman had blonde hair and was wearing the white peasant blouse and dark orange skirt that was the uniform of the girls who worked in the Orange-Orange shops. And the woman's attire struck Lana as odd or at least more odd then the attire of the two men, because the woman was very attractive and definitely in her upper twenties. And while you frequently saw attractive girls aged sixteen to eighteen working there, by their upper twenties all the attractive ones would have long since moved on to bigger and better things. Or at least that was Lana's observation after spending the better part of five years running a small coffee shop.

Of course, even more odd was seeing the guy in the green shirt and the woman brandishing guns. Geeky guys who worked in electronic stores and girls who sold fruit drinks don't typically go around packing – even in gun-happy Los Angeles. So what was going on here?

Then Lana noticed how both the man in green and the woman each had one hand holding the second man down and how he was the only one not carrying a gun. It took a second before it suddenly clicked. Several times while she had been married to Lex, she had been in dangerous situations like this and every time her bodyguards positioned themselves exactly like this. Who was the guy in the white shirt and black tie of the Nerd Herders?

Lana leaned in close and read the badge clipped to the man's pocket protector. Chuck Bartowski – the name didn't ring any bells. After thinking about it for a second, she reached into his back pocket and fished out his wallet. The name on his driver's license matched the one on his nametag.

Straightening up, Lana reached into her satchel and pulled out a pencil and a small notebook. Quickly, she wrote down all the information on his driver's license, the numbers on the two Visa cards and the social security card, and even the number on the Burbank Public Library Card. Perhaps one of these numbers would help her figure out who he really was and why he had a pair of undercover bodyguards.

After returning his wallet to his pocket, she repeated the process with the other man who turned out to be a 'John Casey'. His name didn't ring any bells either, but as she was writing down his info, she realized he lived the same apartment complex as Bartowski. Again that seemed very odd unless he was a bodyguard, then it would make sense that he would want to be close 24/7. However if Bartowski was rich enough to have a bodyguard, why would he be living in an apartment complex?

Stuffing Casey's wallet back into place, Lana turned to the woman. A quick search didn't turn up a purse or any ID. Stepping back, Lana pondered the situation for a moment. These three seemed odd and out of place, but they didn't instantly strike her as 'the bad guys'. And they were obviously in a defensive position. If they were in a shoot out with the cops, why weren't any of the cops or at least their cars with the flashing lights visible? No, whoever was shooting at them was definitely doing it from places of cover.

Lana slowly moved to one side while studying the air in front of the cars. The street and the nearby parking lots had a lot of large lights making things reasonably well lit. A bullet frozen in place by her highly accelerated existence would still be difficult to spot, but as she moved, she saw the line of turbulence one bullet was making. Quickly, she strode around the Porsche until she found the bullet still about six feet away. Positioning herself between the bullet and its intended target, she sighted back along its line of flight. It led to the rooftop of a two story building across the street. Turning and looking forward along its flight path, she realized it would pass dangerously near the three crouched behind the car. She still wasn't sure who the good guys and who the bad guys were, but until she figured it out, it was best to assume these three were the good guys. Therefore she plucked the frozen bullet out of the air before setting off to investigate the shooter on the roof.

Dashing across the street, Lana discovered the windows along the front of the building were all dark. Before breaking into the building, she decided to circle around to see if there was easy rooftop access from the side or back. Reaching the side of the building, she spotted a ladder whose bottom rung would be an easy ten foot vertical jump. Suddenly feeling like Jaime Sommers from the old 'Bionic Woman' TV show, Lana leaped hard and grabbed the ladder more than two-thirds of the way up. With a quick series of hand-over-hand motions, she reached the top without her feet ever touching a rung.

Swinging lightly over the parapet, Lana landed on her feet and straightened to look around. The roof was filled with the usual array air conditioning units and antennas. After moving twenty feet to her left she had a clear line of sight to where the shooter was crouched along the front edge of the roof. Continuing to scan the roof for any other things of interest or things that didn't seem to belong, Lana jogged over to the shooter.

The man was dressed in black from head to toe without any immediately identifying insignia like POLICE or FBI spelled out in giant letters. Pulling off his black ski mask, she found a dark haired twenty-something man, who, while admittedly kind of cute, she had definitely not seen before. Searching his pockets, she found nothing but a cellphone – a cheap, prepaid one that would be nearly impossible to trace. The complete lack of ID was certainly a strong indicator that this was a 'bad guy'.

After dropping his phone into the Faraday bag in her satchel to join her own, Lana pulled out several extra-long plastic twist-ties and proceeded to bind the man's arms behind his back and then bound his legs at knees and ankles. Then she picked up his sniper rifle to dispose of it somewhere else, just in case the guy managed to work his way loose. As she was raising it to sling it from her shoulder, she noticed the digital display on the high-powered scope. And then a wire leading from the scope to a small black box mounted on the side of the stock. It had to be a transmitter, she realized. And a pretty short ranged one at that. So there had to be at least one more guy around. And if this had been her operation, she would have had several shooters and a central commander or coordinator.

Quickly, Lana scanned the other nearby rooftops. But she didn't spot anyone as they were all poorly lit and she didn't have Clark's enhanced vision, or at least not yet, as Dr. Groll had been optimistic additional enhancements to her nanosuit were possible the last time she had talked to him.

So instead of focusing on the rooftops, Lana prowled the perimeter of building searching the better lit streets below. And when she reached the back of the building, she saw what she had been looking for – a large black utility truck, which at least from the distance appeared to be completely clean of logos and numbers and which simply shouted 'covert surveillance van' to her experienced eye.

After a quick glance back at where the bound shooter still lay, Lana vaulted over the rear edge of the roof and dropped lightly the twenty-five feet to the ground.

Jogging over to the van, Lana gave the handle of the door on the back a light twist. Locked. Hmm, not unexpected, she thought. Applying a little of the nanosuit's power, she twisted until something popped and the door swung free. Climbing inside, she found one man staring at a bank of four computer monitors. Looking at the images, she saw the two cars from across the street being shown from four different angles including one that had to be from the shooter she had just taken out. As always, it seemed way cool that she could move so fast the rifle slung from her shoulder was still displaying the image from the roof up on the monitor.

Then focusing back on the situation at hand, Lana thought about what the pictures on the monitor were trying to tell her. They had four well-placed shooters, which indicated a planned ambush. Hmm.

Looking around the interior of the van, Lana didn't see any noteworthy except for a couple of 8 x 10s of Bartowski taped to the wall near the monitors. Otherwise there was nothing to indicate who the guys with this van were anymore than the empty pockets of the first shooter had. Certainly, if they were SWAT it would have been extremely obvious. No, everything was definitely indicating these were the 'bad guys'.

Hoping to figure out who they were or who they worked for, Lana turned to the van's sole occupant. And suddenly she realized she recognized him, but at first couldn't remember from where. Staring at his thinning dark blonde hair which was graying at the temples, Lana tried picturing him a little younger and then she had it. He was Dominic something. Ah, Dominic Senatori! She had first encountered him skulking around when she was trying to convince Lex to let her turn the old Talon movie theater in Smallville into a coffee shop rather than tearing the building down to turn it into a parking lot. After seeing him talking to Lex one time, she had asked and Lex had admitted Senatori worked security for LuthorCorp and he had been doing a background check of her before Lex would sign off on her proposal.

Lana hadn't seen Senatori for at least five years, but suspected he was still working for LuthorCorp in some capacity. LuthorCorp. She had never expected to run into one of their black ops out here barely three weeks after her arrival in L.A. What interest could LuthorCorp have in this Bartowski guy?

And more importantly, she suddenly wondered, who at LuthorCorp was behind this operation? The three most logical candidates were Tess Mercer, Oliver Queen, or most scary of all, Lex. Oh, she had been present when the truck he had been in had blown up and had seen the post-mortem DNA results, but face it; she had used the 'cloned dead body' ploy before herself in an almost identical car bomb way. No, Lex had been declared dead almost more times than she could count and had always come back stronger and more evil than before. She wasn't anywhere near ready to say 'Elvis had left the building'.

Not really expecting to find anything, Lana went through the motions of checking Senatori's pockets. Surprisingly, she found a phone, one of the big bulky satellite jobs that would bypass the local cell tower system. Not having had much dealings with them before, she wasn't sure if it could tell her anything useful, but she added it to the growing collection of phones in her Faraday bag. It was a tight fit and in the end she wrote herself a note in her notebook to carry a spare one in the future.

Then Lana leaned back against the wall of the truck and stared blankly at Senatori and the row of monitors while trying to decide how to proceed. She had never expected to get tangled up with a LuthorCorp operation, or at least not this soon. With anyone else the seemingly instantaneous things she could do would be a simple unexplained mystery. But in reality, there were three people she knew of who could do that sort of thing – Clark, Bart, or her – and Lex, Tess, and Oliver were each aware of at least two of them. However while she hadn't tried to keep her move to L.A. a big secret, she didn't know that that fact had necessarily crossed any of their personal radars. And she would prefer to keep it that way.

So dropping out of P.T. and directly questioning Senatori was definitely out as he would instantly recognize her. She could simply let him go and try to track him back to whoever was pulling his strings. But that would mean letting him complete his mission and that wasn't an acceptable option now that the three people out by the cars were starting to look like the 'good guys'.

No, the best solution for the moment seemed to be to tie Senatori and his shooters up here in the van and then call in the cops. It should keep him on ice for at least twenty-four hours. And she still had enough contacts within LuthorCorp to make a few discreet inquiries into who was really running this op. Plus it would give her a little time to research this Bartowski guy and see what LuthorCorp wanted with him. Because as she sat there, she realized if the powers at LuthorCorp wanted him dead, they would have used a lot more force than four snipers. No, the plan must have been to use the snipers to take out the two bodyguards and then take Bartowski alive. And until she understood what was going on, her number one priority was to keep him alive and out of LuthorCorp's hands.

With her course of action decided, it took less than a second of real-time before the four snipers were secured in the van along with Senatori. Then moving to a rooftop on the other side of the street near where the Porsche and the Nerd Herder car were sitting, Lana finally dropped out of P.T. and used one of the snipers' pre-paid phones to make an anonymous call to the police. Oh, doubtlessly by now someone else had reported the gunfire, but she wanted to be sure they didn't miss the black van parked one block over.

It was nearly five minutes before the three down below seemed to believe their opponents had suddenly departed. And Lana wasn't certain if they would have even moved then if not for the sound of approaching cop cars. Obviously, they weren't interested in becoming entangled with the police either. Quickly, once they decided to move, the woman hopped into the Porsche while the two men climbed into the Nerd Herder vehicle. With a whirr, the little electric car followed the roaring Porsche down the street until they disappeared around the corner just as the first cop car turned onto the street from the opposite direction.

Lana considered following 'the good guys', but decided her time would be better spent on research. They should be safe from LuthorCorp for at least the next few hours. And she knew where the two men lived. And finding out which store they were using for cover couldn't be too hard, as it was most likely the one nearest the apartment complex. And the woman? Well, she doubtlessly wouldn't stray too far from Bartowski tonight. Lana hung around just long enough to ensure the cops had discovered the black van before shifting to P.T. and heading back to her car and then on to Isis West.

Part 2

Lana grinned at her reflection in the mirror in the large master bath of her condo. It had been awhile since she had gone undercover. And it had taken a trip to a 24-hour Target to complete her ensemble, but now she looked like the perfect little Nerd Herder – white button down shirt, black tie, black slacks, and brown penny loafers. Well, not quite perfect, it needed at least one more touch to make her look a little geekier.

She went to the drawer where she had dumped all the assorted jewelry she had accumulated down through the years. Well, all the cheap, fake jewelry – the good stuff she had gotten from Lex was all stashed safely in a safety deposit box in the vault behind the building's concierge desk. It was certainly nice to be able to afford a first class lifestyle. This building would barely have been within reach with the ten million dollars she had received in the divorce settlement from Lex, assuming she hadn't used most of that money to set up the Isis Foundation. But it was only after she awoke from the three month Brainiac-induced coma that she had received the shock of learning Lionel Luthor was dead and that he had left her ten percent of LuthorCorp in his will. Boy, he must have hated/feared Lex in the end if he felt it was necessary to give that much power to Lex's Ex. Of course, if he had expected her to go toe-to-toe with Lex in the boardroom, he would have been sadly mistaken. Lana had liquidated most of her new-found holdings as quickly as she could. She had no desire to be trapped that tightly in Lex's orbit.

Digging through the drawer she came across a gold eyeglass case. Opening it exposed a pair of white cat's eye glasses that brought back memories of the last time, the only time, she had worn them. She and Lex had hosted a gala costume charity ball with glamorous 1950s Hollywood as the theme. She had borrowed a little from Audrey Hepburn, a little from Lauren Bacall, and a little from Grace Kelly to end up with an ensemble consisting of a black shimmering evening gown, fifteen strands of tightly wound pearls, a diamond encrusted tiara, an eighteen inch white cigarette holder, and this pair of white pearlescent cat's eye glasses. She had to admit they had had some fun times before Lex's lies had torn everything apart.

Slipping the glasses on, she walked back over to the mirror. Perfect. While they had looked glamorous when worn with a beautiful evening gown, they looked down right nerdy when paired with a shirt and tie.

After grabbing her purse and her car keys, she stepped briefly into her home office to pickup the papers she had printed on the official BuyMore letterhead. It informed the manager, Michael Tucker, of store 637 in Burbank that she was being reassigned from store 682 in Encino. Hopefully all the tricks she had learned down through the years from Chloe and the lingering aftereffects from Brainiac's mind probe would be enough for her to fake some prior experience.

As she walked down the hallway and then rode the elevator down to the garage, she mentally ran through what she had learned in the last few hours, not that it had been that much.

When she had started looking into Chuck Bartowski's background, she had half expected to find a dead-end trail. While she had been driving back to Isis West, the only thing that came to mind to explain why a guy working at a BuyMore would have bodyguards was if it was some kind of witness protection thing. What else would explain bodyguards for someone making little more than the minimum wage? But when she started looking, she found background information going way back.

Charles 'Chuck' Bartowski had been a student at Stanford until he was kicked out for cheating during his senior year. 'The Stanford Daily' newspaper had even included a photo, which confirmed it was the same guy. After college he had moved to Burbank and started sharing an apartment with his sister. He had then spent the past six years working at the BuyMore and there was sufficient evidence within the BuyMore HR computer system to convince Lana he had been there the whole time. So why would he have bodyguards?

A generic internet search turned up twenty-three Charles Bartowski's scattered around the world, but nothing new or useful regarding the one of interest to her. No, it wasn't until she let loose the big 'Brainiac' machine that she came across a couple of interesting tidbits. The first was a small, but measurable spike in searches for the terms 'Chuck Bartowski' and 'BuyMore' from computers in both the NSA and CIA main campuses over a six day period eighteen months earlier, and then absolutely nothing. There had been noise level searches on these terms during the months and years leading up to that week and then nothing, as though they had been designated as banned search terms. And the total lack of searches was just as telling as a huge spike in searches – the intelligence agencies seemed to have some interest in Chuck Bartowski. It just wasn't clear what that interest was.

The second item was a solitary entry from eight months earlier on one of the GRU's (the Russian Foreign Military Intelligence Agency) message boards commenting that twenty-five people, including a Charles Bartowski, had been added to Fulcrum's internal 'people of interest' list. Fulcrum – a name Lana had heard before. LuthorCorp had occasionally hired their services when it needed intelligence or black ops in the geopolitical arena and deniability was required. From what Lana knew or could glean without hacking too deeply into dangerous computer networks, Fulcrum was an independent intelligence gathering agency which primarily contracted out to the highest bidder and was composed mainly of former CIA agents. Of course, if Lex had significant dealings with them, how independent they truly were was open to question. But assuming they were independent, what intelligence did they think they could acquire from Bartowski that would turn them a profit?

So at the moment Lana had a lot more questions than answers about Bartowski, but if LuthorCorp and Fulcrum where both actively pursuing him, she needed to determine for certain if he was one of the 'good guys' and if so, how she could best help him. And that was when she decided she needed to get closer to him to keep a better eye on things. She wasn't too concerned about Fulcrum, they would probably stick to gathering intel. But LuthorCorp was another matter. They had already made one attempt to grab him and had almost overwhelmed his bodyguards. What if they tried again and pulled in some 33.1 resources? At least she had a lot of experience with meteor freaks, meta-humans, and alien mutants plus, if necessary, the abilities to handle most of them.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Lana thought, as she exited the elevator on the garage level. There might be a simple explanation for everything and things might not escalate into a battle involving superpowered beings.

As she walked up to her car, it suddenly occurred to her that maybe she should visit 'Rent a Wreck' before showing up at the BuyMore. But then she remembered the Orange-Orange girl from the previous evening with the 911 convertible. Climbing behind the wheel of her bright copper-colored Infiniti FX50 SUV, she reminded herself that this was California – the car you drove didn't necessarily have any relationship to your financial situation.

Part 3

Chuck sat behind the counter at the BuyMore help desk and stared down at his right hand. He was holding it down out of view below the counter and it wouldn't stop shaking. Last night had been one of the scariest evenings of his life and it wasn't just the gun battle. In the eighteen months since he had had the Intersect jammed into his head he had been involved in seven shooting incidents, almost enough to begin getting used to it.

No, the extremely bad part had been finding out the message from General Beckman to go to Pasadena to see if he 'flashed' on anything at LiftPort Industries had been a fake. Someone not only knew about him and the Intersect, but also had been able to penetrate their secure datalink to Washington. At the moment they were under orders to only accept instructions which came from the General via live videolink.

Chuck had been really freaking out that this time they, whoever the mystery 'they' were, knew about him and they could come for him at anytime. Sarah and Casey had tried to reassure him by reminding him the opponents had lured them to a secluded, late night trap and therefore a public location like the BuyMore was the safest place at the moment. But as Chuck sat there, and felt his body jump at every unexpected noise, he wasn't so certain.

He tried to force a smile, as the situation at least had had the side benefit of Sarah spending the night in his bedroom on guard duty while Casey had gone back to their command center to report in and start a search to figure out who had unexpectedly attacked them and then just as unexpectedly stopped. But Sarah had been one hundred ten percent business all night and he had seen how it had jangled even her nerves when Casey had texted that their secure datalink had been compromised.

So far it had been a quiet Thursday morning at the BuyMore. Although Chuck wasn't sure if that was a good thing, as it left him just sitting there fidgeting. At least Lester and Jeff, the two other Nerd Herders working the day shift, had been hanging out in the breakroom and not annoying him with their usual inane conversations and stupid schemes.

Suddenly, Chuck realized someone had been standing at the counter staring at him for several seconds. Looking guiltily up, he was just starting his normal opening spiel when he recognized the broad shoulders and the green BuyMore shirt.

"Casey?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

John Casey leaned forward and said in an attempt at a low rumble, but which was still at the same volume as anyone else's normal voice. "The cops caught five men last night only one block from last night's . . . ah . . . incident. The strange thing is that they were tied up and locked inside a van. They have only identified one of them so far, a mid-level security operative for LuthorCorp. It is not clear yet what is going on. If they were the shooters, who took them down? And if they are just fall guys to lead us in the wrong direction, then who was really behind things?"

Chuck just stared at Casey. It was unusual for the NSA agent to be this forthcoming with information. Then he saw the haunted look in the older man's eyes. They had walked into a well-laid trap and both Sarah and Casey were lucky to be alive. Chuck didn't need to see it in black and white to know the opposition had had every intention of killing the two agents before abducting him. Then he would have disappeared into some dark obscure hole until all of the data stored in his head could be extracted, doubtlessly by some extremely painful means, and then he too would have been killed.

Before Chuck could respond, Lester came bounding up to the counter at almost a dead run.

"Chuck," Lester began and then paused to catch his breathe, as though he had run a couple of miles rather than seventy-five feet. "Chuck, Big Mike wants you back at his office. He has this woman in there and . . . and . . . and I think I'm in love. She has to be the hottest girl who has ever been in the store. And I didn't get a good look, but I think she is actually wearing a Nerd Herd uniform. Did I mention how hot she is? Ah, remind me again, there isn't a policy against dating coworkers, right? I mean look at Morgan and Anna. . . ." Lester's voice just faded away as he stared off in the direction of Big Mike's office even though it wasn't visible from the help desk.

Chuck glanced at Casey, who gave a small nod. They were both thinking the same thing – in the middle of a crisis, unexpected things were seldom coincidences.

Chuck stood up and headed towards the back of the store. Casey grabbed a couple of open boxes, which had been sitting on the counter, and headed in the direction of the rear supply room a bare eight feet behind Chuck. Chuck knew Casey had a secret weapons compartment just inside the back area and that he would use the boxes as cover while grabbing one of the guns. To give him a little extra time and to distract anyone in the area if it became necessary, Chuck dawdled for a moment at the employee bulletin board. At a nod from Casey, Chuck strode briskly over to Big Mike's door; if there was one thing he had learned in the last year and a half, it was that procrastinating in these situations just twisted his stomach into knots.

Chuck rapped on the glass office door and at a gesture from Big Mike stepped in. The woman Lester had been blathering about was standing in front of Mike's desk with her back to Chuck. At first glance all Chuck saw was a relatively short, say 5'4" compared to his own 6'4", petite girl with black hair cut just short of her shoulders.

"Bartowski," began Big Mike, putting down the half-eaten 12" Subway sandwich he had been holding in his right hand before gesturing towards the girl. "This young woman will be joining your team. She is transferring over from Billy Tate's store in Encino."

At this the young woman turned in Chuck's direction while flashing a megawatt smile. And for once Chuck found himself in agreement with one of Lester's assessments. The girl was incredibly beautiful. He wasn't quite ready to admit she was in the same league as Sarah, but he knew he had definite bias in Sarah's direction.

And the second thing he noticed after the smile was the glasses. Every true nerd he had known seemed to have at thing for girls who wore glasses. He remembered countless drinking parties at college with other nerds from the Physics department where the topic had always come up. And then looking passed the glasses he saw a slight oriental cast to her eyes like she had a grandparent or great-grandparent of Asian descent. Damn, maybe Lester was right and this was the hottest babe who had ever been in the store. Certainly, she was the hottest babe who was ever going to work there. He didn't feel quite so much like he was betraying Sarah after adding that stipulation.

"Hello, I'm Chuck, Chuck Bartowski," said Chuck with just the slightest hint of a stutter, as he stuck out his hand.

The woman slipped her cool hand into his.

"Lana Fordman," she answered in a pleasant voice.

Her fingers were just tightening for the obligatory handshake when Chuck 'flashed'.

In an instant it felt like gigabytes of data that had been lying dormant in his head came rushing forth, each bit screaming for his undivided attention. It had to be the biggest flash he had ever experienced. The thousands of images, hours of video, and hundreds of documents nearly overwhelmed his mind. After a fraction of a second some built-in safety mechanism shunted most of it to his memory and only the most important summary remained in the forefront of his mind. And that alone was enough to scare the shit out of him.

Overlaid on an image of this woman was her true name, Lana Lang. And along with it came a brief bio:

**Lana Lang **– Age: 24. Born: Smallville, Kansas. Estimated net worth: $1.2 Billion. Lang is the ex-wife of Lex Luthor. She has been involved in the deaths of four men – all ultimately deemed self-defense (and here a montage of gruesome crime scene and morgue photos flashed through Chuck's mind including one of a man with a pitchfork thrust through his torso from the back.) Lang faked her own death to frame her husband by using a car bomb on a cloned copy of her body (_Clone???_). After separating from her husband, she established 'The Isis Foundation' to supposedly help mutant humans (See also Meteor Rocks). The Isis Foundation is currently number three on Homeland Securities' terrorism watch list due to activities of its supposed 'clients'. Lang recently spent three months in a coma in the Belle Reve Sanitarium, cause of coma is unknown. After leaving Belle Reve, she disappeared from NSA and Homeland Securities' radar. Lang is categorized as extremely dangerous by the NSA. Current whereabouts: UNKNOWN.

Known Associates:

**Chloe Sullivan** – (The image of a mid-twenties girl with short blonde hair flashed through Chuck's head.) Age: 24. Born: Metropolis, Kansas. Estimated net worth: minimal. Sullivan is the acting head of The Isis Foundation. She is currently ranked number 1 on the NSA's alpha-red hacker watch list. She is believed to be in possession of advanced alien computer technology. (_Alien???_) Sullivan has twice been arrested by Homeland Security for illegal access to NSA, CIA, and NASA computer systems. On both occasions all charges were dropped and she was released within twenty-four hours at the behest of unnamed authorities. Sullivan is categorized as extremely dangerous by Homeland Security. Current whereabouts: Metropolis

**Tess Mercer** – (The image of another knockout woman, this one in her early thirties with auburn hair next flashed through Chuck's mind.) Age: 32. Born: Billings, Montana. Estimated net worth: $47 million. Mercer is acting CEO of LuthorCorp. Former head of the 33.1 Project, a LuthorCorp program to identify, detain, and gain control of mutant and meta-humans. During Mercer's rise to power she has been implicated in the deaths of fourteen LuthorCorp employees, but has never been charged. The FBI categorizes Mercer as extremely dangerous. Current whereabouts: Metropolis

**Oliver Queen** – (The image of a blonde man, who definitely could be a high-paid model, flashed through Chuck's mind.) Age: 29. Born: Star City, Illinois. Estimated net worth: $16 Billion. Queen is the CEO of Queen Industries. He has been in the same city on the same day as terrorist attacks against eighteen LuthorCorp facilities on five continents, but no connection has ever been officially established. The CIA has associated Queen's name with 'The Justice League of America', a vigilant group with unknown affiliations or agenda. Queen is categorized as dangerous by the CIA. Current whereabouts: Star City

**Lex Luthor** – (An image of a bald headed man formed in Chuck's mind – a face even he instantly recognized.) Age: 29. Born: Metropolis, Kansas. Estimated net worth: $11 Billion. CEO of LuthorCorp at the time of his disappearance. Suspected, but never proven to be involved in the death of his father, Lionel, which resulted in Luthor's gaining control of the company. Luthor headed up Project Ares, a DARPA-funded LuthorCorp project to create super-soldiers through the use of alien DNA. Primary suspect behind the events of 'Black Thursday', the cyber-attack which collapsed power and telecommunication grids throughout the Midwest. Luthor is categorized as extremely dangerous by the FBI, CIA, NSA, and Homeland Security. Current whereabouts: UNKNOWN.

And then as abruptly as it had started, the 'flash' was over. Chuck just managed to suppress the gasp which tried to escape when he regained control of his body, but couldn't suppress the associated shudder. And for the next few seconds, a paraphrased version of the most famous line from the classic geek horror movie, 'The Fly', repeated over and over in his head:

'Be afraid, Chuck Bartowski. Be VERY afraid.'

End of Chapter 1


	2. Chapter 2

11/1/09

Chuck versus LuthorCorp

Chapter 2

Part 1

Lana felt a shiver ripple through Chuck's hand right in the middle of their handshake, as though a sudden chill had swept through him and the room. And if she hadn't been staring into his eyes, she might have missed how they glazed over for a couple of seconds. She had experienced similar reactions before upon first introduction, but only when she had been 'Mrs. Lex Luthor'. Had Chuck recognized her? She didn't think she was that well known outside of Metropolis. Oh, it certainly would have been possible if she had been on Lex's arm, but alone and with the glasses to disguise her appearance she hadn't really expected to be recognized. But he was certainly acting as though he was reacting to something.

But whatever it was, the store manager must have been totally oblivious to it, as he jumped right back in.

"Oh, and Bartowski," Big Mike said, as he shifted papers around on his desk. "I have a work order here for, ah, Renwick Stained Glass. They say one of their computers appears to have a virus. They need someone to come out and clean it up and then update the security systems on their other four machines. Take care of it and take Fordman with you. It will give you a chance to bring her up to speed on how we do things in this store without all the distractions you would have doing it here."

When the manager had started talking Lana had turned so she could see both of the other men. For the first few seconds Chuck had looked almost in a daze. And even once his attention had focused on the manager, he still continued to shoot her frequent glances. From the expression on his face, she was certain he had somehow recognized her. But if he had recognized her, then why was she reading a sense of fear from him? And not just in his eyes, but his whole body as his posture gave every impression he was prepared to bolt from the room at a moment's notice. There might be a hint of surprise at finding the former Mrs. Luthor slumming it by working at a BuyMore in Los Angeles, but why the strong sense of fear?

Lana's attention was dragged back to the manager, who held out a sheaf of stapled pages which had to be the work order. Since she was standing closer to him than Chuck, he extended them in her direction. As she took them, she couldn't help but notice the large dollop on the top sheet of what looked like honey mustard dressing from his sandwich. It helped reminder her she needed to get back into character.

"Thanks again, Mr. Tucker, for giving me this opportunity," Lana said, intentionally glancing down towards her feet in a subdued manner which projected a hint of embarrassment.

"Well, here at this BuyMore we look after our own," Big Mike answered with just a touch of steel in his voice indicating there might be a real reason why he was the store's manager. "If you have any trouble like you did at your old store, you let me know and I WILL take care of it."

Then his voice lightened back to his more normal jovial tone. "And no more of this Mr. Tucker, everyone calls me 'Big Mike'. Now, the two of you get out of here and get this job taken care of. I expect you to be back in the store shortly after lunch."

Chuck finally found his voice, although it was hard with the huge amount of data from the 'flash' still roiling around in his head. "Ah, sure thing, Big Mike. Who do you want me to leave in charge of the help desk, Lester or Jeff?"

"They're the only other service technicians working?" Big Mike scowled.

Chuck nodded and could see the look of indecision on Big Mike's face. For a moment Chuck hoped Big Mike would change his mind and keep either himself or the girl in the store to have what appeared to be at least one competent person both here and on the outside job, but then Big Mike just shook his head.

"It's your call, Bartowski, since you're the lead technician. But tell them I intend to make several spot checks. I do not want a repeat of Tuesday's stunt."

Chuck nodded more in resignation than agreement. He didn't want to leave the relative safety of the BuyMore. And he definitely didn't want to leave it without passing on to Casey what he had learned from his 'flash'. But he simply knew the woman would stick to him like glue until they were on their way.

What he couldn't figure out was what she was doing here. Oh, she was probably after the Intersect like others before her, but why was she here in person? The super rich didn't normally do their own dirty work. If she had sent last night's hit team, why not just send another? There had to be something else going on that his 'flash' didn't fully explain.

Not that his flash had really explained anything about the current situation. Clones, alien DNA, meta-humans, alien technology – why hadn't any previous flash ever hinted at these topics? What else was buried in the Intersect that he had never imagined? It had to be something very special, if people with access to all those things were still interested in him.

Perhaps the 'flash' had provided the answer, but he just couldn't yet discern it from amongst all the data. It had happened before where the 'flash' contained so much data it had taken a while for it all to register. And this 'flash' seemed to contain several orders of magnitude more information than any before. If only he had time for his subconscious to organize all the new data into a more accessible format. But he didn't have time to stretch out on his bed at home and stare blankly at the ceiling for several hours. Hopefully, his mind would make some progress while they made the house call. And he just hoped he would get through the next couple of hours without another attempted 'snatch and grab'.

After a quick nod to Big Mike, Chuck turned to the girl.

"Ah, Lana," Chuck began, trying to project the calm demeanor he would have shown any other new member of his team. "We might as well be on our way. I just need to make a quick stop at the help desk to let Lester and Jeff know we will be gone for awhile and to grab my tool bag."

Lana followed Chuck out of Big Mike's office with only a curt backward nod to the store's manager.

"I thought all the hardware and software we needed was stocked in the car. Or at least that was the way it was at my old store," Lana cribbed from the BuyMore training videos she had accessed while she had still been at Isis West.

"Yeah," answered Chuck, as he gave the 'follow, but don't take immediate action' signal to Casey, who was still lingering near the entrance to Big Mike's office. If this Lang woman had gone to all the bother of infiltrating the store, it seemed unlikely she was going to do anything drastic – or at least not until they were well clear. He just wished he could figure out how to pass to Casey at least some of the intel he had received in the 'flash'. Then forcing thoughts of Casey aside, Chuck turned his attention back to his conversation with the girl.

"Our cars are fully stocked, too. It's the first task on our daily checklist. However, I have accumulated a few bits of code I like that aren't yet on the BuyMore approved list. Also I have a few modified tools I like plus my personal multimeter is better than the stock one."

As Chuck finished speaking, they entered the main floor of the store. There may have been a few more customers around than when Chuck had gone to Big Mike's office, but, fortunately, none of them looked to be members of an assault team.

Exiting the washer/dryer appliance aisle, Chuck was moderately surprised to see both Lester and Jeff standing behind the help desk counter. Jeff had his usual vacant expression, as though most of his attention was on some imaginary videogame rather than on what was going on around him.

However Lester was another story. His dark, almost beady eyes were staring straight at Chuck and Lana, as though he hadn't even blinked the whole time Chuck had been in the back. But now that they were in view, he took a deep breath, stepped from behind the counter, and headed briskly in their direction.

Lester didn't stop until he stood barely two feet from Lana. Then he quickly shot Chuck a pleading expression.

"Lester Patel, this is Lana La . . . ah Lana Fordman," Chuck said by way of introduction. An introduction he had nearly flubbed due to the 'flash'. This wasn't the first time he had almost blurted out some data he had acquired from a 'flash', information that contradicted what he was supposed to 'know' and which had almost compromised the mission. However this wasn't supposed to be 'a mission'. It was supposed to be just a normal day at the BuyMore. Not that there had seemed to be any 'normal' days here since Bryce had tricked him into downloading the Intersect.

Chuck had barely stopped speaking when Lester moved another half step closer to Lana. "It is an absolute pleasure to meet you, Lana," Lester began in what was obviously meant to be a suave tone, as he raised his hand for a shake. However he had moved so close his hand nearly brushed against the front of Lana's blouse.

"Whoa, there," answered Lana, as she took a half step back in turn and raised her hands in a 'back off' gesture. "There's this little thing called 'personal space', Mister Patel. And you have intruded on mine."

Looking flustered, Lester took a step back as well so that almost five feet separated them. "Sorry."

"Apology accepted," answered Lana with a nod. Then with a slight frown she continued. "I didn't really want to bring this up on my first day here, but maybe it's for the best to get everything out in the open. A coworker at my old store made unwanted advances towards me. After I used my martial arts training to put him in the hospital everyone agreed it might be for the best if I switched stores."

As Chuck watched, Lester's dusky complexion seemed to turn slightly gray.

"Ah, sorry," Lester repeated.

Lana threw another curt nod in his direction and then turned her attention towards Chuck. With a quick flick of her head she gestured towards the help desk.

Chuck nodded and stepped around the left side of Lester while Lana proceeded around his right side. Lester just slowly turned to watch their receding backs while they moved away.

"Good job," Chuck chuckled, as he unexpectedly began to warm towards the girl who was much more than she pretended. "It's always fun to watch Lester get bitch-slapped. But let me warn you, it won't deter him for long."

Lana smiled in turn. "Don't worry. I've dealt with his type many times before. That wasn't the only arrow in my quiver." Lana's smile broadened for a second as the old saying reminded her of the time she had encountered the Green Arrow in an abandoned warehouse in Cuba where their separate paths in pursuit of the elusive Lex Luthor had intersected. And then how the moment had turned into an even bigger shock at discovering the Green Arrow was actually Oliver Queen. Of course, that revelation still paled next to discovering the man she had dated off and on for almost five years was an alien with superpowers.

Reaching the help desk, Chuck quickly introduced Lana to Jeff, which was a much less dramatic experience, grabbed his equipment bag from under the counter, pulled a set of keys for one of the Nerd Herd electric cars, and led her towards the front door.

As he paused to hold the door open for her, Lana gave him a penetrating stare. Between the slip he had almost made when introducing her to Patel and the looks he had been giving her while they had been in Big Mike's office, she decided the probability was high he had recognized her. Therefore admitting the truth, or at least that much of it, wouldn't reveal anything new and might help convince him he could trust her.

"Chuck, how did you recognize me?"

"Recognize you? What are you talking about?"

"Come on, we both know my real name is Lana Lang. You almost blurted it out to Lester."

They had reached the car and as Lana walked around to the passenger side there was a natural lull in the conversation. It gave Chuck a minute to consider how to respond. He could pretend to be a tabloid fanatic, however he hated to lie as it always seemed to come back to haunt you. However on the other hand, he certainly couldn't tell her the knowledge came from the Intersect. Although since the only reason for her to be here was the Intersect, revealing the source of his knowledge might not make any difference. But still he wasn't ready to take such a drastic step yet.

Therefore instead of answering her question, he asked one of his own. "What is the rich and powerful Lana Lang doing pretending to work at a BuyMore?"

They slid into the car. Lana pulled out the paperwork Big Mike had handed to her. Without immediately addressing Chuck's question, she said, "Here's the address of the stained glass store. If you want to let your bodyguards know where we're headed, it's okay with me."

"Ah, bodyguards?" asked Chuck, as he slid the car's key into place but made no move to start the vehicle.

Lana sighed. Chuck was certainly doing his best to be obtuse. "It came to my attention LuthorCorp has some interest in you. I found out too late to stop last night's events before things got started, but I managed to neutralize their players before things got out of hand. I did a little research after the encounter in the industrial park, but couldn't figure out why LuthorCorp was interested in you. I was intrigued as to who you were and why a BuyMore employee would have a couple of bodyguards. So I decided to get a little closer until I figured out what was going on. Plus it's easier to run interference from up close if LuthorCorp makes another try at you before I determine who at LuthorCorp is behind it."

"You're the one who left the five guys tied up in the van last night?"

Lana gave a cryptic smile. "I do have resources. Maybe not on the same scale as LuthorCorp, but I get by."

Chuck tried to imagine the resources a billion dollars would buy. "So you're telling me you weren't behind last night's attempt?"

Lana shook her head. "No, there is a certain level of animosity between me and the people running LuthorCorp these days." She remembered Tess's reaction at discovering Lana had usurped the nanosuit technology. "Actually, there is a lot of animosity between us, not that we would ever admit it in public." Lana paused to look out across the busy parking lot. "I am really here to help, but in the meantime we should get going. Call your friends and then we can talk along the way."

Chuck hesitated for a moment, but then pulled out his phone. Hitting the speed dial for Sarah, it barely rang once before she picked up.

"Hey, it's me," began Chuck. "I'm going on a service call and I thought you and Casey might want to tag along. We are on our way to . . . ah," He leaned over to read the address Lana was indicating with her index finger. "Renwick Stained Glass at 3763 West Empire Avenue."

"Chuck," answered Sarah. "I can see you from the shop. Casey texted me about the new service tech. He also said you were acting a little strange. Did you 'flash'?"

Something about the way she phrased it, together with the weirdness of the whole situation, made Chuck picture himself wearing a bright yellow raincoat with nothing underneath. Did he flash? He glanced over at Lana while trying desperately to suppress a nervous laugh. "Yeah," he responded with a pause that felt just a little too long before continuing, "I think it will take an hour or maybe an hour and a half to take care of their computers. I really need to get going and will talk to you later."

Chuck disconnected the call and started the car. With just a slight whir, the small car rolled out of its parking spot and headed for the street.

"What's her name?" asked Lana.

"Who?" asked Chuck, although he knew perfectly well who she was talking about.

Lana took in his reticent expression. "The blonde from last night. Oh, a first name is good enough, if more makes you uncomfortable. She is very beautiful. Actually, she needs a better cover. She is too beautiful to be working at an Orange-Orange. It was one of the first things that struck me as odd when I saw the three of you together."

"Sarah," Chuck answered. With the resources Lana Lang could access, she would be able to learn that much in a few hours, if not minutes. The real question was how long would Sarah and John's cover identities hold up against the powerful magnifying glass she could bring to bear? Even if Lana truly didn't know about the Intersect, neither John nor Sarah's cover stories explained their 'bodyguard' function. And if, no when, Lana's people started pursuing the bodyguard angle, would they discover the link to the NSA and CIA?

Deciding to trade question for question, Chuck started with one that felt equally harmless, given the bigger picture. "So how did you decide on Lana Fordman?"

Lana smiled. "Oh, it was a silly girl thing. My first real boyfriend was named Whitney Fordman. When I was fourteen, I would spend hours doodling 'Mrs. Whitney Fordman' or 'Mrs. Lana Fordman' or simply 'Lana Fordman'."

"What happened?"

Lana sighed. "He was a couple years older than me. When he was a senior in high school, we hit a rough patch. He was making all of these long term plans, but I was only sixteen and wasn't ready to think about that yet. When he graduated he joined the Marines and that ended it. Well, I think in my head it had already ended before then."

"Do you keep in touch?"

Lana thought a moment about her last encounter with Whitney. Or at least who she thought was Whitney, but who had actually been the shape-shifter, Tina Greer. It so sucked that her last memories of Whitney had been corrupted by her. "No, unfortunately he got deployed to Afghanistan and was killed in action."

"I'm sorry," was all Chuck could think to say in response.

"It's okay," responded Lana with a rueful shake of her head. "It happened a long time ago. And he wasn't the first friend or acquaintance I lost or the last. Hell, sometimes when I am depressed I search for people I have known from high school or college on Facebook. I see all these people who have hundreds of 'friends' and yet it seems like if I did a Facebook page, it would have more dead friends than living ones."

"Are you okay?" asked Chuck. After the big 'flash', which made her and her associates out to be among the richest, yet scariest people on the planet, he hadn't expected her to suddenly come across as a young woman with problems he could relate to. Oh, none of his friends where dead except Bryce, but he had seen more death in the last eighteen months than he ever would have imagined to be possible.

"Yeah, I came to L.A. to get away from my old life, but it isn't that easy to turn off my memories. And now I have been out here barely three weeks and I am tangled up with LuthorCorp all over again."

"You don't have to be," answered Chuck suddenly feeling compassion for this young woman. "Just walk away. Now that we know LuthorCorp is out there, we will be on our guard."

Lana shook her head. "No, unfortunately you need me. If I hadn't stepped in, they would have taken you last night."

"I, ah we, slipped up last night. It won't happen again."

Lana took in the earnest expression on Chuck's face. He wouldn't be nearly that confident if he had the slightest idea what he might be up against. "What you don't understand is last night LuthorCorp was only playing their third string, not even their Junior Varsity team. If they send in their really 'big guns', you and your people don't stand a chance. That's why I need to figure out what's going on and see if I can stop this by going directly to the top. If Tess is behind this, that may be possible. If it's Lex, well I don't want to think about that quite yet."

"Ah, I thought Lex Luthor was dead. It was in all the papers." There were times Chuck wished if he had to be stuck with the Intersect that at least it was somehow kept up to date. All the 'flash' had told him about Lex Luthor was that he was missing. A lot had happened in the months since he had received the data dump.

"I was there when the car bomb went off and saw the lab reports on the DNA samples found in the truck, but I still don't deep down inside believe he is dead. Lex is the most devious person I have ever known, and I have known a lot of people who would make Niccolò Machiavelli look like a rank amateur. I figure the probability is ninety-five percent Lex is still alive and biding his time to make the most dramatic reappearance. The whole 'rising from the dead' scenario fits perfectly into Lex's God Complex. I mean this was the third memorial service I have attended for him and both previous times, he managed a near miraculous reappearance, so why not one more time?"

Chuck had no response for Lana's mostly rhetorical question. The discussion about Lex Luthor seemed to bring more information about him from the 'flash' to the forefront of his mind. And none of the newly acquired information in anyway threw the man in a positive light. Lex Luthor had access to some truly scary technologies and weapons. If he had been behind the previous evening's encounter, then Lana was probably right, Sarah and Casey were seriously outgunned. Did Lana have enough people backing her up, if another attempt was made against him? She certainly seemed confident. And if her people were trailing them, too, what if Sarah or Casey spotted some of them?

Then Chuck had to remind himself that he only had Lana's word she hadn't been behind last night's events. He knew he had been around spies too long as his mind started contemplating double crosses and double-double crosses. His gut told him he could trust the girl, but he couldn't think of anyway to verify it without asking questions that would reveal the Intersect.

For the remaining five minutes of the drive to their destination, Chuck and Lana remained silent each contemplating what was probably coming, if not now then somewhere else in the near future.

Part 2

Renwick Stained Glass was located at one end of a modest strip mall separated from Empire Avenue by a small parking lot. Chuck found an empty parking spot near the front entrance of the store.

After parking and working his large frame out of the small car, Chuck headed towards the back. "I'll grab the 'Nerd Herd' gear from the trunk."

"Okay," answered Lana as she glanced around. After last night's attempt to grab Chuck, there was a good possibility this call was a trap. Before leading Chuck blindly into the building, she needed to do a quick check.

With Chuck's attention focused on the contents of the trunk for a few seconds, Lana quickly shifted her body into Prometheus Time. Almost instantly all the city noises began Doppler-shifting to lower and lower frequencies until everything fell silent. Then Lana ran.

Before entering the building, she ran a rapid grid pattern up and down all the streets and alleys for three blocks in every direction. Only once she had verified there weren't any unmarked black vans or other vehicles that caught her attention did she proceed into the store.

Renwick Stained Glass looked to be a small family-run business. The front display area was relatively modest - about forty feet wide by thirty feet deep. It was filled with rack after rack of different colored sheets of glass – more shades of color than Lana had ever imagined. Along the back wall was a large assortment of equipment and related paraphernalia for creating stained glass panels. Well, stained glass panels and other things, thought Lana, as she took in the large assortment of panels, lamp shades, jewelry boxes and other samples on display all over the store.

Lana was tempted to take some time to examine the artwork, but knew there would be time for simple gawking once she was back in normal time. For now she had to focus on why she was here.

Three customers were frozen in place in the act of searching through the bins of colored glass. One employee was standing with one of the customers while another was standing behind the counter near the cash register. And that's when it struck her, where were the five computers they were here to work on? All she saw was the lone cash register.

A combination emergency exit and restroom sign marked the solitary doorway located in the back right corner of the room. Lana headed over and found a short hallway leading towards the back. A pair of public restrooms were located along the left wall and at the end of the hallway was a door marked 'Private'. Lana walked down the corridor and tried the door fully expecting it to be locked, but it swung open effortlessly at her slightest touch.

Stepping through, Lana discovered a small office area containing three desks with computers. Two of the desks were occupied by women wearing telephone headsets and frozen in the act of typing on the machines. The computer on the third desk was dark with a post-it note stuck to the center of the screen warning it shouldn't be turned on until repaired.

The back wall of the office consisted of a row of windows overlooking a small warehouse area filled with row after row of rectangular boxes each about two feet wide by one foot deep by six inches tall. Glancing at some of the paperwork on the desks, Lana realized this warehouse was the stained glass distribution hub for the much of the West Coast. It suddenly explained why a glass shop would need so many computers.

The store was definitely a real business and not simply an empty store front selected as a trap. As Lana quickly toured up and down every aisle in the warehouse, she decided the call to the BuyMore was probably legit. Of course, that didn't mean LuthorCorp didn't have the BuyMore staked out or Big Mike's office bugged. She definitely needed to keep her guard up extra high at least until they got back to the BuyMore, but for the moment it looked safe to let Chuck into this store.

As she made her way back to resume her former position before dropping out of PT, Lana realized she needed to place some bugs of her own. She didn't want to spend 24/7 with Chuck until this situation was resolved and she only needed a couple of seconds to reach him from anywhere in the city. A couple of bugs in the BuyMore and a couple in Chuck's apartment should do the trick, although the ideal solution would be a bug on Chuck himself. For a moment her thoughts were drawn to the bug Lex had planted directly on Tess Mercer's optic nerve so he could see everything she saw. That would be the ideal solution, but probably difficult to implement with only a few hours notice and way overkill for a situation which was likely to resolve itself in the next couple of days.

Reaching the car, Lana glanced down to make sure her feet were in the exact same spot they had been in. Then she raised her right hand and rested it on top of the door frame. Finally, she turned her head towards where Chuck was frozen half hidden by the trunk lid. For a moment her mind drifted back to the old 'Bewitched' TV show, where the actors had to maintain position while Samantha blinked in and out of the scene. Lana had practiced first at home in front of the mirror and then out in public until she felt she had mastered the skill. Doubtlessly a time would come when she would want to take some action while in a crowd space without letting anyone realize she had moved.

Immediately after dropping out of PT, Lana swung the door shut and stepped around to the back, joining Chuck.

"Need a hand?" she asked.

Chuck shook his head as he slid the final pack of CDs into the carry case and closed its cover. "No, that should be everything." After pulling the heavy case from the trunk, he set it on the pavement before slamming the trunk lid.

As the pair began walking towards the building, Chuck asked. "Ah, do you even know anything about computer repair? I mean if you really decided to infiltrate the BuyMore only a few hours ago, you couldn't have had time to bone up on the topic. Just say the word, if you need me to cover for you."

Lana glanced down at the paperwork she was still carrying in her left hand. "Oh, I've played with a computer or two in my time, but I'll admit I have spent more time working with Unix server systems then . . . ah . . . Windows XP. But if I got stuck I figured I could either put in an emergency call to my friend, Chloe, who is a true whiz with any technology, or if I couldn't reach her I would just say I needed to take infected computer back to the store to work on it."

The name Chloe brought back to Chuck's mind the info he had learned about Chloe Sullivan from the 'flash'. If she truly was ranked number one on the NSA's hacker watch list, she probably could talk Lana through a simple computer repair job.

After his years at Stanford, he had always thought his computer skills were good, but he knew, even if he were into the whole hacker thing, that he was nowhere in the league of someone the NSA rated as number one. Of course, he didn't have access to alien computer technology either, as was implied about Lana's friend. Curious to find out more, but needing to be careful not to reveal he knew more than he should, Chuck settled for the simple, "Chloe?"

Lana glanced at him with a genuine smile. After her maudlin talk about death in the car, Chuck was glad to see her mood had bounced back.

"Chloe Sullivan. She has been my best friend since high school. She has always been there for me in the good times and the bad times. If not for her, I don't know if I would have ever pulled out of the dark depression I fell into after my miscarriage."

They had almost reached the buildings front door, but Lana paused and looked at Chuck. "Sorry, I didn't mean to bring that up, but for some reason I feel comfortable talking to you. Maybe it's because I haven't had anyone to really talk to since leaving Metropolis. But let's save my personal baggage for some other time. How about you focus on getting this job done and I'll focus on resolving the LuthorCorp situation?"

Chuck nodded as he started once more towards the door. At first her comment about the miscarriage and ensuing depression made him think of the mention in the 'flash' of the months Lana had spent in the Belle Reve mental institution. But then other conflicting information swam into focus. The miscarriage had been so much earlier than her mental institute confinement as to seem to be unrelated. And had there even been a miscarriage? One set of documents in his head said, no, it was a hoax to trick Lex into marrying her. Another set of documents said, yes, but then went on to suggest cloning technology had been involved. And a third and most scary set of documents hinted that the embryo had been at least partially alien and had been removed and then re-implanted into a secret host to be brought to term. What was the truth? Did Lana even know the truth?

Entering the store, Lana headed straight over to the girl standing behind the counter near the cash register. As Chuck caught up, she glanced down at the paperwork in her hand.

"Hi, we're from the BuyMore. We have an appointment with . . . ah . . . Gladys Renwick."

"Hi, that's my Mom. I'm Emily. We've been expecting you. If you'll follow me, I'll take you back to the office where the problem machine is located," Then pausing just long enough to lock the cash register, she led the way to the hallway Lana had earlier explored.

Pushing through the door at the end of the corridor, Emily walked over to the older of the two women working at the two functional computers. "Mom, the people are here about the computer," Emily said quietly.

The woman pointed at her headset to indicate she was on a call and then waved in the direction of the busted computer.

Holding herself to a whisper, Emily pointed to the broken computer. "That's the one which has been giving us all the problems."

As Chuck moved over and hit the power button to read the diagnostic messages displayed as the computer tried to power up, Lana turned back to Emily.

"The paperwork says there are five computers needing updates to their security software, but I see only three."

"The other two are back in the warehouse and are equipped with barcode readers to track incoming and outgoing shipments," answered Emily. "Let me show you where they are and then I need to get back out front."

Lana glanced at Chuck, but his attention seemed to be fully absorbed in working on the busted machine. Therefore she followed the young girl out into the warehouse.

"It seems pretty quiet back here," said Lana. She had already confirmed during her initial quick survey that no one was in the warehouse area.

"Yeah, it is usually empty this time of day. We don't do that many shipments on a daily basis. My Dad, who's a teacher, my younger brother, and a younger cousin get all the shipments ready after they finish with school for the day. We have an arrangement with UPS where all the deliveries and shipments occur in the early evening."

At the back of the warehouse area near a large vertical sliding door was a small work area with two pallets of unused shipping boxes and a couple of tables supporting the remaining two computers near one end. After pointing at the two machines, Emily made a speedy departure to the front telling Lana if she needed anything else to please come get her.

Lana walked over to the two computers and hit their power switches; the machines would need to be running to load the updated security software. Then she headed back up to the office area to see how Chuck was doing.

When she arrived, Chuck was still sitting in front of the corrupted machine.

"How's it going?" she asked and watched as Chuck jerked in surprise. He might be a good computer technician, thought Lana, but he is never going to survive against a LuthorCorp black ops team, if he is so focused he forgets to pay attention to what is going on around him.

"Okay, well, okay for me, but this machine's whole hard drive is going to have to be wiped and the operating system reinstalled. At the moment I am trying to download what I can salvage to a USB memory stick before reformatting the drive. Fortunately, their sales and inventory databases were not affected and were redundantly stored on all five machines."

It looked like Chuck had more to say, but he was interrupted by sound of shattering glass from the front of the store.

Quickly, Lana leaned close and whispered straight into Chuck's ear. "Wait here while I go check things out. Just in case there is trouble, call your friends and tell them to hang back and let me handle things."

Then Lana headed out of the office at a dead run.

Chuck just stared after her for a moment as the hint of her perfume lingered near his face. He knew he had feelings for Sarah, therefore why had the way Lana's lips nearly touched his ear set his heart to pounding?

As startlingly vivid daydreams involving a beautiful petite brunette danced through his head, Chuck forced himself to pull out his phone and hit the familiar speed dial button.

Part 3

Sarah lowered her phone to the counter of the Orange-Orange store and placed it next to the Nikon camera with the Reflex-Nikkor 1000 mm Mirror lens. She had just managed to get a good head shot of the girl with Chuck on the far side of the parking lot which separated the Orange-Orange shop from the BuyMore. But now there wasn't going to be time to take it downstairs to upload it to the NSA's facial recognition computers, not if she was going keep up with Chuck. And with the scary events from the previous evening still churning her stomach, she wasn't about to give Chuck a ten minute head start – particularly not when he had some unknown woman in his car who had apparently caused him to 'flash'.

At least she wasn't stuck wearing the hideous Orange-Orange uniform this time, she thought, as she stowed the camera under the counter and grabbed the large black shoulder bag containing her gun and assorted spy toys. The store wouldn't open for another hour and she was still in her street clothes – a pair of gray slacks and a pale blue button-down shirt.

In less than ten seconds she was out the front door. In another fifteen seconds she had the door locked and was sprinting around the corner of the building to where her Porsche was parked.

As she pulled out in front of the Orange-Orange store, Casey came running across the parking lot. Sarah barely slowed as Casey scrambled into the passenger seat while deftly pulling out his model 1911 Colt 45 semi-automatic from where it had been tucked under the back flap of his green BuyMore shirt. She still thought he should upgrade to a more contemporary weapon, but had to admit he had been satisfactorily proficient with it in the months they had been forced to work as a team.

"Step on it," Casey growled as he pulled the door shut.

Sarah did as he suggested while thanking her lucky stars she had left her car parked with the top up and hadn't taken time to put it down. If it had been down, she knew Casey would have vaulted over the door and the reinforced combat boots he preferred to wear in his BuyMore disguise would have wreaked havoc on the leather upholstery of her passenger seat.

"What do you know about the girl with Chuck?" asked Sarah as she barreled out of the parking lot into a gap in the heavy traffic not six inches wider than the Porsche.

"She says her name is Lana Fordman and she just transferred over from another BuyMore."

"When Chuck called me, he said he 'flashed'. It had to be about her. You got a closer look at her than me. Did you recognize her?" Sarah asked.

"Chuck called you? When? He has been with her continuously since they left Big Mike's office. I just assumed you saw them leaving and were tailing them."

"He called right after getting into the car."

"He called in front of the girl and then said he flashed on her? Damn that Bartowski, I thought by now we had pounded the proper procedures into his thick head."

Sarah didn't answer for a moment as she raced through an intersection several seconds after the light had turned red.

"Chuck never used the word 'flash', I asked and he answered with a simple 'yes'. But he definitely called me and gave me the address they are heading to while Fordman was sitting in the passenger seat."

"Why would Bartowski do that?" asked Casey and then continued before giving Sarah an opportunity to respond. "He knows we have all of the Nerd Herd cars lo-jacked. And he knows I saw him leave with her, so he had to know we would be on their trail without his needing to call in and potentially blow his cover."

Sarah shook her head in agreement. "It doesn't make sense. Well, maybe it does. Maybe he was trying to convince her it would be stupid to try anything if we are right behind them." Sarah paused for a moment and then slammed her palms against the steering wheel in frustration. "Damn, we have no idea who the girl is or if she has any connection to what happened last night. Chuck must know something if he flashed on her. If only we knew what. Or if only I could figure out what message he was really trying to send by calling me while the girl was right next to him."

"So where did Bartowski say he was going?" asked Casey as he pulled the special NSA issue tracking GPS device from the Porsche's glove compartment. "Perhaps he was forced to give us the wrong destination to give them a bigger head start before we caught on."

"Renwick Stained Glass at 3763 West Empire Avenue. We should be there in two minutes."

"Okay, I've got them," remarked Casey after thirty seconds of fiddling with the tracking device. "The car is stopped in the 3700 block of West Empire, so Bartowski apparently wasn't being forced to give us a false address."

Shooting through another light in the very last milliseconds of the yellow, Sarah said, "I see it up ahead." Quickly she moved over to the right lane and used the first of two entrances into the small parking lot. They entered the parking lot just in time to see Chuck and Lana disappear through the front door of the stained glass store. Sarah pulled into the first available parking spot which she selected as it was the farthest from the targeted store.

"Since the girl has already seen me and I would really standout in my BuyMore shirt," began Casey as he climbed out of the low slung car. "You better take point while I reconnoiter the exterior."

Sarah nodded and rechecked her shoulder bag before exiting and locking the car. After slipping her bluetooth earpiece into her right ear and verifying Casey was connected and her voice-activated phone was set to record, she strode briskly towards the front of the store trying the whole way to dredge up some information about the stained glass process to bluff an explanation for her presence in case she was forced to linger for an extended period of time. Why couldn't it have been a gun store; that was one topic on which she was at least conversant. Although on second thought, guns and Chuck were never a happy combination.

Pulling open the door of the store, Sarah's training kicked in as her eyes automatically scanned the room and found no sign of Chuck or the girl. With a second glance around she realized there weren't any computers in sight, which meant Chuck and the girl must be somewhere in back. She could hardly go storming into the back looking for them without blowing her cover. No, she was going to have to wait out front and trust John was covering the building's rear exits.

A young girl with shoulder-length red hair was just entering the room from the corridor leading to the back. She started towards the cash register behind the counter, but then spotted Sarah and detoured in her direction.

"Hi, I'm Emily. How can I help you?"

Sarah threw one of her powerful smiles. "Hi, I'm Sarah. I have been feeling the urge to find some creative hobby. I have always been intrigued with stained glass, but I have no experience. Can you help me?"

"Of course," answered Emily with a smile of her own. "I can explain the basics, but probably the best thing to do is to sign up for one of our classes. We offer beginner classes on Monday and Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings. We also offer more advanced classes on Tuesday and Thursday. The price is twenty dollars per session and usually it takes three sessions to complete your first project. Oh, and after you have gone through the beginner's class, we offer a free workshop on Saturday afternoon. It's a good way to meet others and trade tips on techniques. We have a small core group who are here almost every week and others who show up every month or two."

"Whew, that's a lot to take in," remarked Sarah as she glanced passed the girl towards the corridor leading to the back.

"Oh, stained glass is easy and fun," answered Emily. Then pointing towards the counter, she continued. "How about we go back and take a look at a book of stained glass patterns? If you're the creative type you will eventually want to do your own designs, but a simple stock design involving seven or eight pieces of glass is a good place to start. That's enough to get a taste for cutting and shaping the glass, doing a little foiling and then soldering without being completely overwhelmed. You should be able to complete the first piece in four or five hours and then decide if stained glass work is really for you before tackling something more challenging. So let's pick out your first pattern and then we can look for some complementary pieces of glass. It'll be fun."

Sarah allowed herself to be led over to the counter. Chuck and the girl could be working in back for an hour or two and she needed to stall for time. In an ideal world they would have a number of agents who could cycle through the store to avoid raising suspicion. But with just John and her, and John having already met Lana Fordman, it was down to her to stretch her time as long as possible.

However Sarah quickly learned she needn't have worried about stretching her time. She and the shop girl, Emily, had been looking at the book of patterns for less than three minutes when the front door of the store slammed open hard. Sarah glanced up and was startled to find five men dressed all in black, up to and including black ski masks, come charging through the doorway. Four of them were carrying assault rifles while the fifth man was only armed with a holstered pistol. Beyond the last man Sarah saw a large black utility van parked in front of the store with a sixth man behind its wheel. And an unknown number of men could still be in the back of the van, thought Sarah as she tried to figure her best course of action.

The five came through the door in such a rush the third man jostled the second man whose weapon hit the nearest display rack of glass sheets. Half a dozen sheets cascaded to the floor where they shattered one after the other.

"Careful, three," said the last man in the line as he stepped briskly through the door while the other four fanned out.

Sarah grabbed Emily's arm and shoved her to the floor to get her out of the potential line of fire. While gesturing towards the far end of the counter, she quietly spoke, "Casey, we have big trouble in here." If these guys were referring to each other by numbers rather than name, they were definitely a first rate crew.

She got no response but static from her earpiece as she tried to decide what to do. If John wasn't answering that had to mean there were more of these guys at the back of the store. Shit. She was tempted to go for her gun, but hated to initiate a firefight when there were five civilians in the room. Not to mention all five of her opponents were definitely wearing body armor which meant headshots would be required to take them down. And no way could she get all five before they would be returning her fire with fully automatic weapons. Immediately her eyes were searching for the location with the best cover.

As she scanned the room she couldn't help but spot the girl who had arrived with Chuck, Lana Fordman, enter the room from the back corridor at a run and then watched her skid to a halt. The girl turned and stared straight at Sarah for a moment. It was obvious the girl recognized her, particularly after she threw a quick wink before turning her attention towards the men. How could this Lana Fordman know her, Sarah wondered for a second. But then it struck her, if she was infiltrating the BuyMore to get near Chuck, then she probably had them under surveillance for days. And there had been plenty of opportunities for her to have seen the two of them together.

"STOP!" the girl shouted to ensure all the black ops guys were focused on her. "Charles Bartowski is under MY protection. I think you better check with your higher ups. Your orders are going to change."

The fifth man's gun remained in his holster as he said, "Four, grab her."

As Sarah watched, the fourth man, the largest man of the lot, slung his weapon from his shoulder strap and started forward. The man was big and massive yet moved lightly on his feet. Sarah could tell by simply looking at the way he moved that he was a martial arts expert. Even with all her training and experience she doubted she could take him in a one-on-one fight. Sometimes size did matter. And even from across the room, Sarah could tell she had five or six inches and thirty pounds more muscle than Lana Fordman let alone the twelve inches and one hundred pound advantage of the man. The girl didn't stand a chance.

Abruptly the girl spoke again and now her voice seemed to be filled with a glittering black power. "PINGUIS . . . MULIER . . . SONO!"

Sarah didn't recognize the words but they sounded like Latin. As the last syllable rolled off the girl's tongue, she stabbed her right index finger in the direction of the man known only as 'Number Four'. Instantly it was like the man had been slammed in the chest by a large invisible car doing at least eighty miles an hour. His body went catapulting backwards straight through the wide plate glass window just missing the black van before thumping hard to the ground inches from the bumper of Nerd Herd electric car.

The man's body had barely hit the ground and while one part of Sarah's mind was screaming 'What the fuck?', another part was forcing her attention back to the girl.

"As I was saying," began the girl, her voice returned to a pleasant conversational tone. "I'm Lana Lang and Charles Bartowski is under my protection. Pass the word up your chain of command, now."

The leader appeared to hesitate for a moment. Then with blinding fast speed he pulled his handgun and fired in one smooth practiced motion. Sarah's experienced eye just had time to recognize it as a SIG-Sauer P-225 before the shooter completed his motion.

And then in the sudden silence all that was heard was a dull 'click'.

"Maybe if you are merely locally hired talent, you didn't recognize my name," continued the girl as though nothing had happened, "Perhaps the true precariousness of your situation might sink in if I told you my other name . . . Mrs. . . . Lex . . . . Luthor."

The name, Lana Lang, hadn't meant anything to Sarah either, but she recognized the name Lex Luthor, a man who scared the hell out of a lot of people in both the NSA and the CIA. She knew of several parties that were thrown inside the Beltway on the day it had been announced Luthor had been killed by a car bomb.

After a pause of a few seconds, as though she was giving plenty of time for her name to sink in, Lana Lang continued. "Luthors are hellishly difficult to kill. Don't think for a moment a group of guys with toy guns can take one of us."

The black ops leader's eyes flicked between Lang and his gun. Sarah couldn't see much more than his eyes with the mask, but between them and his posture she could tell he was suddenly very afraid. And Sarah couldn't blame him. How had the girl managed to throw a two hundred pound man over forty feet by just pointing her finger at him? And what had she done to the man's gun to make it misfire?

The man found his voice, but it suddenly lacked all of its former confidence. "Lex is dead. Luthors can be killed."

As Sarah watched, the girl frowned for a moment and then shook her head. "If you truly think Lex is dead, well, I have this really nice bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in buying. I'll sell it to you cheap and show you how you will make your money back in less than eighteen months from the toll revenue."

Was Lex Luthor still alive, wondered Sarah, or was she just blowing a line of smoke? If he was alive, it would send tsunami scale shockwaves through the Washington intelligence establishment.

"What about Lionel Luthor?" asked the man, as though finding any chink in the Luthor armor was suddenly vitally important. "He is most definitely dead."

Lang grinned, an evil looking little grin. "Yeah, Lionel is dead, but it took another Luthor to kill him."

Then as quickly as it had appeared, the grin was gone. Lang raised her right hand. "Now, who are you working for? Tess Mercer?" And as she finished saying the name she snapped her fingers and the man to the leader's left collapsed to the floor. "Oliver Queen?" She snapped her fingers again and the man to his right collapsed to the floor. "Someone else?" As the second man had been collapsing, the third and final underling still standing had broken and run for the door. When Lang snapped her fingers for the third time, the man had almost reached the door, but he collapsed just as abruptly as the first two.

Now only the leader remained on his feet and his eyes were swinging widely around as it really sank in how far out of his league this petite young girl was.

"Well, I'm waiting," said Lana while tapping her right foot in an impatient manner.

"Ah," began the man with almost a stutter. "I don't really know. We always communicated via anonymous e-mail. I was just instructed to acquire Charles Bartowski and then hold him until I was contacted with further instructions."

"That's not the answer I was looking for. I guess I could torture you for more information," Lana said while raising an eyebrow.

"No, no, please don't. I don't know anything else. Please believe me," pleaded the man.

"I guess this is your lucky day," answered Lana softly. "I do believe you. If any of the people I suspect are behind this, they would have erected at least two and more likely three or four cut-out layers between themselves and you.

"Since you can't tell me who you work for, then the least you can do is pass a message up the chain for me. If Tess or Oliver is behind this operation, they should call me. They have my number. If Lex is behind this, well, tell him he may have chased me out of Metropolis, but L.A. is my turf now. If he sends trouble this way again, he will find himself wishing for something as benign as another bomb jammed up his ass."

Sarah was surprised at the pure venom in the woman's voice when she spoke about her husband. Whatever had happened to drive such a deep wedge between her and Lex, it must have been spectacular.

"Oh, and how about a final word of advice?" continued Lana. "Find a new line of work. If we ever cross paths again, you are really, really going to regret it."

The man was nodding his head vigorously and Sarah almost thought he was going to drop to his knees when she saw Lana raise her right hand and snap her fingers. Instantly the leader collapsed to the floor the same way as his men had done before him.

Part 4

And just like that, the excitement seemed to be over. Sarah stared around at all the black ops agents lying unconscious on the floor plus the one still lying unmoving out in the parking lot.

How had the Lang woman done it? She had never touched a single one of the men or moved away from the spot by the corridor. With a mere gesture of her hand or a snap of her fingers, her opponents had simply dropped to the ground. How had she done it?

Then with a sharp spike of trepidation, Sarah realized the girl was now approaching her.

"Hi, I'm Lana. You must be Sarah," said Lana in a cheerful, friendly tone while offering her right hand.

Sarah took an almost unconscious half step backwards. Who or what was Lana Lang?

"There's no need to be afraid," said Lana, obviously reading the fear in Sarah's face or movement. "We are on the same side. Neither of us wants to see Chuck getting hurt. I will admit I am curious what there is about Chuck that has attracted LuthorCorp's attention. But for the moment simply blocking LuthorCorp's plans is sufficient justification for me to step in and get involved."

"How," began Sarah until she realized her mouth was so dry it seemed almost impossible to speak. After taking a moment to swallow, she started again. "How did you do those things?"

Lana shrugged and then turned towards the front of the store. Waving her hand slowly from right to left, she intoned in a much quieter, but still commanding voice, "NOCENS . . . POPULUS . . . EVANUI."

Instantly the four men lying in the store and the man lying in the street and even the sixth man behind the wheel of the van simply vanished. One second Sarah had been able to see them out of the corner of her eye and then in the next they were gone.

Lana turned back towards Sarah. "I guess if you are really interested, one possible starting place would be researching the Countess Margaret Isobel Theroux. She is a distant ancestor of mine. She was burned at the stake in 1604 for witchcraft. And unlike most of the women burned in that era, well, let's just say she wasn't falsely accused."

When Lana had decided it might be best to hide the true nature of her gifts, pretending they were based on magic had seemed like a good idea. But now she wasn't so sure. She wasn't even sure if the idea had been entirely her own.

It had been almost four years since the last time Isobel had taken possession of her body and left Lana trapped in her own mind. In the end, Isobel's hold over her had been broken and the Kryptonian tattoo which linked Lana to Isobel's power had disappeared. But Isobel was not truly gone; at least part of her spirit was trapped in Lana's mind in the same way Lana had been trapped earlier.

And like Isobel herself, Isobel's magically abilities were still present if mostly dormant. From time to time it felt like the magic bubbled dangerously close to the surface and all Lana would need to do was call it forth. But embracing her magically heritage meant taking the huge risk of losing control to Isobel.

She could never risk letting Isobel loose on the world as she had demonstrated herself to be insanely power-mad without the slightest hint of morals to impose any self-restraint. And now Lana found herself pretending to have magically abilities to hide the nature of her real abilities. Had it been her idea or Isobel's? How close was she to slipping over the edge and using a little real magic?

As Lana stood there for a moment pondering her actions, Sarah was trying to grasp what was going on. She had no explanation for the things she had just witnessed. Did this Lana Lang really just claim what had happened was due to her being a witch with supernatural powers? There was no such thing as witches. But what rational explanation was there for the things she had just witnessed?

"If you could simply make them vanish, why bother with the whole song and dance thing?" asked Sarah trying to find a hole in Lana's story even if she didn't have a viable alternative explanation for what she had just seen.

"I didn't truly make them vanish. I merely moved them into the back of the van. Oh, and I did the same for the three who were behind the building as well," stated Lana. "But getting back to your question, I needed to send a message. When I took down last night's team, I was careful to avoid being seen. And you see what little good that did; less than twelve hours later they try again. Hopefully, the word will get to the right person. If we're lucky, that person will call me and we will discuss the situation like adults."

Sarah didn't want to say it, but she had to ask, "And if we aren't lucky?"

"And if we aren't lucky, they send another team. Only next time with my presence added to the equation, they will ramp things up and include meta-humans on their team."

"Meta-humans?" asked Sarah feeling more and more like she had stepped out of a life that resembled the old TV show 'Alias' and into something from the 'X-Files'. All she needed now where some aliens to find herself all the way in the 'Twilight Zone' or maybe some vampires to go along with the witch to find herself in the 'Twilight' books, instead. Careful, Sarah, she thought, if you start giggling insanely you'll end up in a padded room and will be of no use to Chuck.

"I think I better explain later," announced Lana with an added sense of urgency in her voice. "The cops are on their way and we don't have much time. Your partner is in the back of the van. He's unconscious but unhurt. Take the van and dump it in another parking lot a few miles from here. Leave the men tied up. Call the cops or not, your choice. When you're done call Chuck's phone and we'll bring your car. I'll run a little interference here so things don't lead straight back to the BuyMore."

Sarah stared at the girl for a moment. Sarah was used to being in charge. Oh, sometimes she pretended that John was in charge to sooth his ego, but she knew when the going got tough she made the critical decisions. Now suddenly this stranger showed up and within minutes was trying to take charge. She even wanted Sarah to entrust Chuck's safety to her. And what did she know about her? Nothing except she was married to one of the scariest men in the country. And she had magical superhuman abilities. God, what was going on? What should she do?

Seeing her indecision, Lana grabbed Sarah's arm and started propelling her towards the door. "You have to trust me. If I was simply after Chuck, I would have made him vanish the moment I set foot in the BuyMore." Hardening her voice almost to 'pretend Isobel mode' Lana concluded. "GO. NOW."

Sarah ran for the van. She didn't see where she had any choice. And as she ran she remembered what the situation could have been like without Lang's intervention. It would have been her against five heavily armed men in a room full of civilians, as John had apparently been taken out early. She would have been forced to wait for an opportunity which might never have come. She might have been forced to watch them escort Chuck from the building with only the hope she would be able to track them. Things definitely could have turned out a lot worse if not for Lang. As much as she hated it, Sarah knew for the moment she was going to have to trust her.

Besides what real choice did she have? If Lang became too annoyed, she could make her vanish just like she had done with the men. For the moment the only course open was to try and stay on the girl's good side. Perhaps once she had a chance to talk to John, they could come up with a plan. Yeah, right. Like staid conservative John was going to believe her story. Hell, she didn't believe her story and she had just lived through it. They were so screwed.

As she started the van and pulled out of the parking lot, Sarah remembered Chuck. Her phone had lit up with an incoming call from him right as things had turned hot and heavy. She couldn't risk answering it at the time without drawing the attention of the men with the automatic weapons. But now she felt an almost desperate need to talk to him. She knew it was her job to worry about his safety, but it was more than that. She knew Chuck had feelings for her and sometimes she took advantage of that when it was necessary for 'the mission'. But those same feelings sometimes compelled Chuck to do exceedingly dangerous things, if he thought she was in trouble. She needed to let Chuck know she was alright before he did something stupid that made matters worse. Not that she could imagine how things could be worse than her current situation of being trapped between warring factions of meta-humans, whatever they were.

Reaching blindly into her bag while steering the big van through the heavy traffic, Sarah groped for her phone.

Part 5

Lana paused for only a moment to be sure Sarah was going to get the van and its cargo of inconvenient witnesses out of the way. Then she turned to deal with the inconvenient witnesses still in the store – Emily, the other young female employee, and the three customers, two woman and one man. All five of them had had enough common sense to drop to the floor when the men with the guns had entered. Hopefully, they had been too shocked to fully register the superhuman nature of her actions.

"Emily, everyone," called Lana as she reached into her purse which had miraculous remained slung from her shoulder through the nearly countless trips into and out of Prometheus Time and after lugging nearly a dozen men to the back of the van.

Lana had watched old reruns of 'The Beverly Hillbillies" after school when she had been a little girl. It had always seemed so cool the way Jed Clampett carried the large roll of bills held in place by an old rubber band and when he needed to, he just peeled off as many bills as required. When she came into all of her money, she thought something similar might be prudent 'just for emergencies'. In the 21st Century world of doing everything via credit cards, it wasn't nearly as necessary as back in the 1960's. But after setting up the Isis Foundation, she had found there were lots of times when dealing with meteor freaks when no one involved wanted to leave a credit card trail. So now she conveniently found herself in possession of a large wad of cash. Hopefully with a big bribe and an acceptable alternate story for the preceding events, she could disentangle Chuck and herself from this situation.

"If you could all gather around for a moment," Lana continued as she pulled the large roll of hundred dollar bills from her purse.

Emily was the first to reach the counter as Lana counted out twenty of the bills, which barely made a dent in the stack in her hand.

Sliding the stack over to Emily, Lana said, "This should cover the damage to the window."

Then Lana counted out twenty more bills into each of five stacks.

"When the cops get here and start asking questions, I would like you to tell them a little story. If you are willing to help me, you can each have one of these stacks. And if the cops don't bother me, there will be five envelopes on this counter tomorrow night at eight containing an additional ten thousand dollars each."

"Well," began Emily, "I hate to lie."

"Emily, and the rest of you," answered Lana. "How does telling the truth benefit you? How would you explain what you saw in a way that doesn't make you sound crazy? Or worse, get you locked up for days as the cops try to figure out what really happened here?"

"What do you want us to say?" asked the man, a nerdy looking guy of about forty, who had been looking at the piles of cash with the most greedy expression.

"Oh, more or less the truth. Just tell the cops five armed men dressed in black and wearing masks came bursting into the store. When the front glass pane got broken, they panicked and left. And I was never out here, but in the back the whole time working with the other guy from the BuyMore."

First the man and then several of the others started nodding. However Emily shook her head as she spoke up.

"Why would five heavily armed men break into the store in the middle of the day? This is not a jewelry store. Most people pay by credit card, so we don't have much cash, certainly not enough to be worthy of such an attack."

"They weren't here for money, they were looking for someone," Lana paused to search her memory for an appropriate name. She didn't want to just make up a name; it would simply lead to more questions from the cops. She needed a real person for them to pursue. And preferably someone bad enough to hold their attention and yet so difficult for them to find, they wouldn't ever feel the need to follow up with the witnesses. Lana had encountered a lot of people down through the years who would, at first glance, fit the bill. Unfortunately, the vast majority of them were either already dead or incarcerated in prison or a mental institute. Then abruptly the name of a man Chloe had told her about popped into her head. He was a man who had been hunting meteor freaks and then harvesting their organs. His actions were the antithesis of everything the Isis Foundation stood for. And he should be almost impossible to find.

"Tell the cops the men in black said they were looking for someone named Curtis Knox. And be frank that you don't know anything about him or why these men thought he was here. Got that? These men were looking for a Curtis Knox, before they panicked and piled back into their van and drove off."

Everyone, including finally Emily, nodded their heads. At this, Lana slid the five stacks of one hundred dollar bills forward.

"I suggest you hurry up and put the money away. The cops will be here in less than one minute," said Lana as she began to walk briskly towards the doorway leading into the back. It was time to get back to Chuck and the women in the office and make sure their story would be consistent with the one the people out front were going to tell.

Lana reached the office and found Chuck talking on his phone and holding up a restraining arm to keep the two women from leaving the room.

"What's going on?" asked Gladys Renwick, Emily's mother, in an almost frantic tone as soon as she spotted Lana.

"There has been some trouble out front," Lana began and then seeing the panic on the older woman's face, Lana quickly raised her hands in a calming gesture. "No, it's over and everyone is okay. It started before I got there so I just peeked around the corner so no one out front would see me. Five men with masks and guns briefly held everyone hostage."

"Emily and Karin?" asked Gladys now trying to push passed Chuck.

"They're fine. The men didn't try to hurt anyone. And when the front window got broken, it seemed to scare them off."

"But why were there five armed men in my store? We're in a good neighborhood."

"I overheard them say they were looking for someone. I think they said Curtis Knox."

Lana happened to be looking at Chuck when she said the name. He still held the phone to his ear, but abruptly his eyes appeared to glaze over just like they had when the two of them had first shaken hands. Was it really less than sixty minutes since she had met Chuck Bartowski?

End of Chapter 2


	3. Chapter 3

11/29/09

Chuck versus LuthorCorp

Chapter 3

Part 1

Lana watched in the rearview mirror to ensure Chuck was still following as she turned into the parking lot of the Target store on the corner of Victory Boulevard and Vineland Avenue. At the far end of the 'superstore' were a few smaller shops fronting the parking lot, including a small coffee shop with six outdoor tables. As she got closer she could see Sarah and Casey were still sitting at the same table as when she had raced by earlier in Prometheus Time to retrieve Sarah's car keys.

Pulling Sarah's Porsche into the nearest parking spot, Lana couldn't help but wonder what Sarah had told Casey of the events inside the stained glass store during the intervening minutes. Lana had found him unconscious behind the store when she had made her first sweep back there after the black ops guys had come crashing into the store. Three commandos had been behind the store as well and they had obviously managed to take down Casey. She, in turn, had taken down the three of them before they finished breaking through the store's back entrance. But it had left Casey unconscious throughout the events in the store.

As Lana stepped out of Sarah's car and waited for Chuck to join her from where he had found a parking place for the Nerd Herd car five spots further down the row, she thought back to her conversation with Chuck. For the benefit of the two women in the back office so they would tell the cops a consistent story with the people out front, she had originally told Chuck she had never gone further than the corner of the corridor leading to the front of the store. And that she had seen, but not participated in, the events with the black ops team out front. However once they finished their computer service task and Sarah called to say she and Casey were ready to be picked up, it had been necessary for Lana to revise the story she had previously fed Chuck. So she had changed events out front so that it was her and Sarah who had taken out the commandos and not a silent alarm which had chased them away. Once they had taken the men down and loaded them into the back of the van, Sarah had driven the van away so there would be less of a connection to the BuyMore. But during the explanation to Chuck, Lana had said the two women had taken down the men strictly using their martial arts skills. She had made no mention of her 'superpowers'.

So at the moment, only Sarah of the Chuck-Sarah-Casey team knew about some of Lana's special abilities unless, of course, Sarah had explained the situation to Casey in the last few minutes.

When Lana had approached within ten feet of the table, she tossed the keys to Sarah. "See, safe and sound. Not a scratch on it. And I didn't even abscond with Chuck when I had the chance."

It was twenty-five minutes since Sarah had fled from the stained glass store in the van with its back compartment filled with a team of unconscious black ops agents and one, also unconscious, John Casey. And already the events back there were getting harder and harder to believe. Had Lana thrown a large man forty feet merely by pointing at him? Had she knocked five men unconscious by a simple snap of her fingers? Had she caused those same men to dematerialize and then rematerialize forty feet away in the blink of an eye by a modest sweep of her arm? Sitting out in the bright California sun made the things she had seen nearly impossible to believe.

Then Sarah glanced down at the keys in her hand. Shortly after leaving the store, she had groped in her purse looking for her phone and had felt these very same keys. She had wondered how Lana was going to bring her car without the keys, but now she knew. Somehow Lana had magically acquired Sarah's keys. Magical seemed to be the keyword at least if Lana's story was to be believed.

As Lana stepped closer, Sarah felt a small shiver run down her spine even though a trickle of perspiration from the hot sun had preceded it only a moment before. The abilities the girl had demonstrated were down right scary. And Sarah couldn't even guess what other capabilities Lana might possess.

"Thanks," answered Sarah in a subdued tone, with the word addressing more than just the safe return of her car.

"Hey, where's the big smile? You and I took down the bad guys and no one even got hurt," responded Lana with an infectious grin. "And speaking of them, where did you stash the van?"

Sarah strongly suspected Lana already knew, but answered anyway. "Around back between a couple of similar vans. Everything's quiet."

Lana nodded and then turned to Casey. "Hi, ah John, isn't it? We never really had a chance to get introduced back at the BuyMore. I'm Lana. How are you doing?"

Casey reached up and rubbed again at the back of his head. Everything was still fuzzy. When Sarah had finally roused him in the back of the van, she had checked his eyes and said he didn't appear to have a concussion, but his head certainly hurt like hell. However this wasn't the first time or even the tenth time he had been knocked unconscious in the line of duty and he knew how to tuff it out.

However he barely had any idea what was going on. Sarah had tried to explain something about the situation, but his head had been pounding so badly, none of it had sunk in. Now that his head was finally clearing, he wasn't certain of the situation. Obviously, this Lana Fordman was more than just a transferred BuyMore employee, but they already suspected that from the fact Chuck had 'flashed' on her. And somehow she must have been involved in his ending up in the back of the van with a nine man 'snatch and grab' team. Yet he still didn't know enough to risk saying something which might reveal more about his and Sarah's relationship with Chuck then he should.

"I'm doing, okay," Casey answered brusquely. "I just need a few more minutes and half a bottle of aspirins for my head to clear."

"Hmm," answered Lana. She could go into Prometheus Time and fetch a bottle of aspirins from the nearby Target store, but seriously doubted Casey would accept drugs from her. "I don't have any aspirin, but this might help you feel a little better."

Lana reached into her shoulder bag, pulled out a large heavy object wrapped in a white silk scarf, and handed it to Casey.

Casey, in turn, lifted one corner of the scarf and exposed the gleaming metal of the barrel on his beloved Colt 45.

"Thanks," he said and truly meant it. The gun had been a gift from his father on his eighteenth birthday and he would have hated to have lost it after all the tight situations it had gotten him out of down through the years.

Lana straightened back up. "We should really head back to the BuyMore, if you are okay, John." Lana paused just long enough to see Casey nod and start to climb to his feet before she continued. "Chuck, how about if John rides with you and I'll ride with Sarah?"

Sarah watched Chuck nod and turn back towards the parking lot. She wasn't happy about getting that close to Lana again, but couldn't figure out any other viable option. She would have preferred to have Chuck with her, but that would have left John with Lana and he wasn't in any condition to be driving or deal with whatever story Lana would try to spin out. And from what she had seen in the last hour, Lana didn't have just supernatural abilities for them to worry about. No, almost as scary was how bright Lana seemed to be. Sarah simply couldn't leave Casey with her when he wasn't at his best.

After taking a final sip from her coffee, Sarah rose from her chair and followed the others into the parking lot. She wished she had been able to brief Casey on the true situation vis-à-vis Lana. But the story she had to tell would be almost impossible to believe with a clear head, let alone in the obviously befuddled state Casey had been in when he had first awoke.

As Sarah got closer to where Lana waited by her car, she almost wished she could blurt out the truth. Because the further she got away from the events at the stained glass store, the harder it was becoming to believe what she had seen. And if she couldn't believe them herself, how was she going to convince the others?

Part 2

Casey slid into the passenger seat of the tiny Nerd Herd vehicle. Immediately, he leaned his head back against the headrest and closed his eyes. The pounding in his head abated just a little with the bright sunlight blocked out.

"You okay?" asked Chuck, as he got behind the wheel.

Casey heard or imagined he heard the concern dripping from Chuck's voice. God, how he hated being less than one hundred percent.

"Fine," Casey answered gruffly and then regretted it slightly. It wasn't Chuck's fault he had gotten clobbered on the back of the head. Well, if Chuck didn't have the Intersect in his head, he wouldn't be stuck here in L.A. on what frequently felt like a glorified babysitting job. Not that the last twelve hours had felt like babysitting after two coordinated attacks by persons unknown. And what would his old sensei say if he ever heard a mere three opponents had taken him down without his landing a single blow?

"Bartowski, what the hell is going on? Start from the beginning. You 'flashed' on the girl, right? What did you learn?"

Chuck used the excuse of backing out of the parking space to buy a few seconds to think about his response. How much did he want to reveal about what he knew? In the past he had always shared everything he could, as Sarah and Casey needed the best possible intel to complete their missions successfully. However this time it felt like he had already formed a bond with Lana. She had managed to stop the attack the previous night which would have resulted in the death of the two agents. And he suspected she had played a bigger part in stopping the men in the stained glass store than she had admitted. Had she had people outside the store with long-range tranquilizer guns who had helped subdue the attackers?

He decided he had to at least reveal Lana's true identity. Sarah and Casey would be able to figure it out in a few hours anyway and then they would question why he was hiding it and suspect anything else he might say related to the 'flash'. And what about all the references to aliens and alien technology related to Lana's known associates in the 'flash'? He had never believed aliens had been to earth within recorded history. Why would they hide their presence if they were here? He had always thought any civilization which was capable of traveling between the stars would have evolved beyond the petty issues that absorbed so much of the intelligence community's time and attention, but perhaps everything he had ever imagined had been wrong. It certainly was at odds with what had been loaded into the Intersect.

Forcing his meandering mind back to the present, Chuck responded to Casey's question.

"The girl's real name isn't Lana Fordman. It's Lana Lang," Chuck glanced over at Casey who still sat with his eyes closed and who hadn't displayed any sign of recognition at the girl's name. "She was married to Lex Luthor."

That brought Casey's eyes open. Then he quickly squeezed them shut again in response to the glare off the chrome bumper of the F-150 pickup thirty feet ahead of them.

"Damn, that explains the connection to the LuthorCorp agent found with the men from last night's attack."

"She's here to help," blurted Chuck. When Casey squinted one eye at him, Chuck hurried on. "Her people stopped last night's attack. And I think they stopped today's attack, too."

"And you got this from the 'flash'?" asked Casey.

"Ah, no, she told me."

Casey shook his head and then winced at the spike in pain the motion caused. "Bartowski, when are you ever going to learn to not be so trusting? Never trust anything a perfect stranger tells you. In situations like this, the chances are ninety-five percent she staged both events just to get you to drop your guard. Think about it. Last night she had her people take some carefully placed shots, which come close, but don't really do any harm. Then today a bunch of heavily armed men go down with barely a fight. It is all an act to get you to trust her."

Chuck knew he wanted to trust Lana, but everything Casey said made a lot of sense – almost more sense than the version Lana had been feeding him. Was this all just a setup on her part to get to the Intersect?

Casey interrupted Chuck's thoughts. "Let's try to focus on the facts for the moment. What else did you learn from the 'flash' besides her name?"

Chuck took a deep breath to organize his thoughts. Casey was right. There was a high probability that regardless what Lana said, she was after the Intersect. And if Sarah and Casey were to stand a chance, they needed all the intel he could provide.

"Lana is worth over a billion dollars, she inherited most of it from her father-in-law, Lionel Luthor. After the events of last night and today, she knows you and Sarah are some kind of bodyguards. Whether she is after the Intersect or not, she knows you have to be working for somebody and she has the resources to track down your true affiliations."

Casey nodded. "Okay, we'll assume if she hasn't already broken our cover, she will within the next twenty-four hours. We will need to pass this information on to the General. What else did you learn?"

"Okay, here's where it starts to get crazy. The 'flash' was full of references to cloning, mutant humans, meta-humans, alien technology, and to projects sponsored by DARPA and other government agencies to use alien DNA to develop super-soldiers. Lana heads some organization called 'The Isis Foundation' which is supposed to be helping mutant humans. But according to the 'flash', 'The Isis Foundation' is ranked number three on the Homeland Security's terrorist watch list."

For years Casey had heard rumblings through his intelligence community contacts of ultra-black projects being funded by the government into all kinds of esoteric areas. He had never heard any details or even an official whiff of 'aliens', but he wasn't surprised. There were simply too many reports of UFO's and things like Area 51 for there not to be a little actual fire behind all the smoke. But for the moment he tried to focus on the things he understood, and being number three on a terrorist watch list fit the bill.

"God damn it, Bartowski. You want to trust her when she heads a company that ranks number three on the terrorist watch list?"

Chuck slowly nodded. "Yeah, I think I do. I think it is a case of 'damned by association'. It is the people, the mutant humans, her company deals with that are the real concern. It is simply a case of so many of them passing through The Isis Foundation's doors, it makes monitoring her company an obvious thing to do." Chuck paused for a second, but then continued before Casey had a chance to say anything else. "Besides, if she had wanted to steal me away, she could have done it just now and left you and Sarah sitting at the coffee shop."

Casey had to concede this one point. If she simply wanted to get Chuck alone to interrogate him, she could have achieved that goal without two large scale attacks. No, there had to be more going on he couldn't yet decipher.

"What else did you get from the 'flash'?" asked Casey, knowing their time was limited before they would find themselves back at the BuyMore.

"Just brief bio's of Lana's closest friends and associates. And if you didn't like what you heard about The Isis Foundation, then you aren't going to like this either," answered Chuck.

Casey merely grunted for him to continue.

"Okay, first up is her ex-husband. The information in the Intersect predates his death, but since Lana doesn't really believe he is dead, it may not matter. Lex Luthor was on everybody's highest level watch list – FBI, CIA, NSA, Homeland Security, Military Intelligence . . . everybody. It wouldn't surprise me if Lana is right – Luthor may have faked his death simply to get off everyone's radar. Anyway, the information in the Intersect says the consensus is Luthor was responsible for 'Black Thursday'. Also he headed up the DARPA funded project to develop super-soldiers I mentioned earlier."

"I already know a little about Luthor, go on." Casey had been in Star City on an assignment on 'Black Thursday'. The level of damage there hadn't been nearly what had been reported for Metropolis, but it had been bad enough. All the utilities had been down for three days and it had been scarily similar to what had been reported for gulf coast cities after a major hurricane strike – no electricity, water supplies contaminated, the works.

"Ah, next would be Chloe Sullivan, Lana's best friend. She is currently acting head of The Isis Foundation and is also at the very top of the NSA's hacker watch list. She has punched through the firewalls of the NSA's most secure computers in a matter of seconds, which is suppose to be impossible with their state of the art encryption. Not only has she done it, she has managed it twice. Since they can't duplicate how she accomplished the feat and based on other things which have come up with regards to her and Lana's other known associates, the NSA believes Sullivan has access to advanced alien computer technology. However there is something odd about the two times she has penetrated the NSA's security. With all the extremely valuable information on those systems, she has never gone for the obvious things which could be used directly to undermine the government or which would be an easy sale on the black market. No, instead on both occasions she has gone after just some extremely specialized information. The first time she was specifically looking for satellite images of Metropolis and the surrounding area on Black Thursday, however all of the government's satellites which passed over the area on that day inexplicably failed. The second time she was again looking for satellite imagery, however this time rather than images of the Earth, she was apparently looking for images of a particular small region of the sky. Since there were no known spacecraft in that direction in the timeframe she was pursuing, the analysts again concluded her interests involved something of alien origin."

Casey was mulling over a bunch of questions when he suddenly realized he had become so focused on the current situation, he had almost forgotten about his headache. But with the big green BuyMore sign already in sight, they wouldn't have much more time alone.

"Any other urgent information from the 'flash'?" Casey asked.

Chuck shook his head. "There is a lot of data still banging around in my head, but most of it hasn't jelled. There were bio's on a couple more people, Tess Mercer, the current head of LuthorCorp, and Oliver Queen, the head of Queen Industries, but nothing that can't wait."

Damn, thought Casey, billionaires seemed to springing up like fleas on a dog this time.

"Did the 'flash' give any clue what these people are after besides the Intersect in general?"

Chuck shook his head again, as he pulled the Nerd Herd vehicle into its reserved parking spot. "No, not a clue so far," Chuck said as he shut down the car. Then before making a move to open the car's door, he turned and looked straight at Casey. "How do we proceed now?"

Casey had been wondering the same thing. "Just go back to work for now. As she said, if the Lang woman's immediate goal was to kidnap you and interrogate you, she already had the perfect opportunity when Sarah and I were stranded at the coffee shop. However that doesn't mean I trust her and neither should you. She could still be behind everything which has happened in the last two days and it all could have been an elaborate way to get inside your confidence. Perhaps she has merely heard of the Intersect, but has no idea what it is or does."

Seeing the look on Chuck's face, Casey added. "And perhaps she is exactly who she says she and she is here trying to help. But until we know for certain, we shouldn't trust her. So for now go do your job. When we can get clear of her, we'll go to the ISZ and call the General to see how she wants to handle things."

One part of Casey's mind wished the General would just use this opportunity as the excuse to lock Chuck in some secure hole where the Intersect would be safe and in the process free him from this babysitting job. On the other hand, it would hardly be fair to Chuck who had never asked to have the Intersect in his head. And Casey had to admit, having the Intersect out in the field had brought a lot of criminals to justice in the last eighteen months. No way would Chuck be experiencing useful 'flashes' if he was locked away in a secure underground bunker.

Meanwhile Chuck couldn't fully suppress a small smile at Casey's ISZ remark. He never would have guessed Casey was a movie buff, or at least a movie buff of the espionage sub-genre. His ISZ nickname for the subterranean command center the government had built under the Orange-Orange store was a tribute to the old Alistair MacLean movie, 'Ice Station Zebra'. Of course, Chuck and Sarah had begun referring to it as 'The Zebra' simply to annoy Casey.

Dragging his thoughts back to what Casey had been saying, Chuck mentally grimaced at Casey's instructions. They were in the middle of another in the seemingly endless series of crises which had occurred since he had received the Intersect, but as always his instructions were to go into the BuyMore and pretend to be a perfectly normal employee.

With a sigh Chuck joined Casey in climbing out of the electric car, as Sarah's Porsche pulled up and Lana Lang got out.

Part 3

Sarah waited until Chuck pulled out of his parking place in front of the Target store before backing her car out of its spot. She longed to open up the Porsche and burn off some of the frustration she was feeling about the current situation. She hated how it felt like she had conceded control of the situation to Lana. And she hated not knowing why this latest group of 'bad guys' was after Chuck. Most of the people they had come up against weren't interested in the Intersect in general, but were after some specific tidbit of info it contained. She couldn't shake the feeling it was the same this time and if only she knew what it was they were after, she would be better equipped to stop them.

However as much as she wanted to rev the car's powerful engine to redline in every gear, she knew her duty was to protect Chuck. And she could best do that by meekly following along behind the little electric car so she would be in position if she needed to run interference.

The two women had been riding for several minutes when Lana finally broke the silence.

"What did you tell John about me?" Lana asked.

Sarah hesitated for a moment, but then decided she might as well go with the truth. "Nothing, really, I started to explain what I had seen, but he was too groggy in the beginning so I don't think anything sank in. Then, I don't know, it all sounded so crazy, even to me, and I actually saw the things you did with my own eyes."

"Good, I'm glad you haven't told anyone. I don't want people thinking you have slipped a gear. That won't do Chuck or me any good."

Sarah glanced over at the brunette sitting in the passenger seat. "You don't have any intention of corroborating my story, do you?"

Lana shook her head, as she remembered how carefully Clark had always guarded his secret. Hell, she had dated him for years knowing the whole time there was something 'special' about him, but it wasn't until she had secretly witnessed some of his abilities and then directly confronted him that he had told her the truth. And now that she had similar secrets she better understood his position.

"No, I see no value in revealing my abilities to more people than is absolutely necessary."

"What about the guys back at the store? You certainly demonstrated your abilities to them."

Lana shrugged. "They were lowly underlings. The only person who matters is the one calling their shots. And unfortunately, the people at the top of LuthorCorp already are aware of my gifts."

They should be, thought Lana, since I stole my gifts from them.

"However," Lana continued. "I see no benefit in letting the people above YOU know about me. So if you decide to talk, I'll do everything in my power to convince them you have gone crazy."

Sarah drove in silence for a few seconds. If the shoe was on the other foot and she had the supernatural abilities, she would want it kept quiet, too. It was like having some special secret weapon that gave you a huge advantage. And as she thought about it, Sarah realized it wasn't unlike their situation with Chuck. He gave them secret intel, which had on countless occasions given them an unfair advantage. It would be nice to have an unfair advantage on the physical side, as well, which Lana brought to the table for at least as long as this alliance lasted. Sarah could almost picture herself not informing the General about Lana's abilities, but what about Chuck and Casey? Could she, no, should she keep it from them?

She would definitely have to think about it some more before making such a commitment. However, since she did know about Lana's abilities, she should learn all she could.

"Okay," responded Sarah. "I won't say anything for the moment, but in return I need some information from you to be prepared for what might be hitting us next. You mentioned back at the store about meta-humans. I have never heard the term before. What were you talking about? What could we be up against?"

"Yeah, you're right. If we are going to be working as a team for now, you need to know more," answered Lana. But then Sarah's mention of meta-humans reminded Lana she needed to talk to Chloe and see if she could help determine who at LuthorCorp was behind the attacks and if they could be called off. And if they couldn't be called off, then at least see if they could figure out what might be sent her way next. If it turned out to be more than she could handle, Chloe could certainly help round up some reinforcements.

"There is just one thing I need to take care of first."

Sarah watched as Lana leaned down to where her purse lay between her feet on the car's floor. She didn't know what the girl was going to pull from the bag perhaps magic stones or something. Sarah was almost disappointed when it turned out to be a phone.

Lana hit the speed dial button for Chloe. On the second ring, her call was answered.

"Hi, Chloe, it's me."

Being able to hear only one side of the conversation, during the first pause Sarah was already wondering who this 'Chloe' was.

"Yeah, Chloe, it arrived safely and I got it setup and running yesterday."

It drove Sarah crazy to hear only one side of the conversation. Surreptitiously, she glanced at her watch and noted the time. When she got back to the command center, or The Zebra as Chuck had been referring to it lately, she intended to access the NSA computers, which archived all phone conversations, and listen to both sides of this conversation.

"I need a favor. I have run into two LuthorCorp special ops teams in the last twelve hours," Lana paused. "No, I'm fine. They were nothing I couldn't handle. Anyway in both instances, they were trying to kidnap a 'Charles Bartowski' B – A – R – T – O – W – S – K – I. I need to find out who is behind this and what is going on. At the moment I am blocking them out of principal more than for anything else. If it is Tess or Oliver who is behind this I would like to talk to them. If I can't get in touch, I'm afraid things are going to escalate - particularly since I crushed these first two attempts like they were bugs."

Sarah was more than a little concerned when she heard Lana giving Chuck's name to the person on the other end of the line. Lana wasn't willing for her 'secret' to be given to the others, but it didn't seem to bother her to be potentially spreading Chuck's secret. And Sarah worried Lana's secret merely involved some weird, unusual abilities while the whole fate of the nation might be at risk with some of the information stored in Chuck's mind.

Sarah almost interrupted Lana to tell her their deal was off when Lana paused for a moment and Sarah felt the other woman stare at her briefly before continuing.

"If things escalate, I may need some help. Could you pass the word to, ah, any of the JLA guys who might be available? And, of course, to Boy Scout?"

Did Lana suspect she would have access to this phone conversation, Sarah wondered. Is that why she was suddenly using code names? Then abruptly Sarah heard the whole tenor of Lana's voice change and thoughts of trying to guess the meaning of these codenames momentarily slipped her mind just like her concerns about Chuck's secret had.

"And how is Boy Scout doing? Even though he's already aware of it, could you tell him I miss him? I know I said it would be best if I went cold turkey, but damn it's been hard."

Sarah heard a catch in Lana's voice and when she looked over she saw her wiping at her eyes.

"Sorry, I've got to go. Please look into those things for me. Bye."

Lana hit the 'end call' button on her phone and then leaned forward to stick the phone back into her purse. When she straightened back up she was still wiping at her eyes.

After the 'tough, hard as nails' show Lana had put on back at the stained glass store, Sarah felt surprised and even a little relieved at this unexpected display of vulnerability. When Lana's eyes were almost dry, Sarah finally spoke.

"Who's Boy Scout?" Sarah asked quietly.

Lana stiffened for a moment as though she had interpreted the question differently then Sarah had intended. But then she responded in an equally quiet tone.

"Boy Scout is, or rather, was my boyfriend. Things happened which have made it impossible for us to be together."

"But you still love him," Sarah stated.

"Yeah, I still love him and he still loves me. It's not that we fought or broke up or anything. Something happened which I am not ready to explain, but it is now physically impossible for us to be within fifteen feet of each other. That's the main reason I'm in L.A. It became unbearable to see him every day and yet never be able to touch him."

Sarah suddenly felt herself empathizing with the other woman. It sounded just like what had happened to her and Bryce. At one time they had been so much in love and she had imagined they would be together forever. But now on those rare occasions when their paths crossed she was forced to act as though her feelings for him no longer existed. And sometimes it felt like something had broken inside that would never be right again.

Sarah reached across and briefly rested her hand on Lana's. "It's okay. I've been there, too."

Lana stared at her for a minute then slowly nodded. "Yeah, somehow I believe you have."

They drove in silence for a couple of minutes. Finally, Sarah spoke again, "So did you meet 'Boy Scout' before or after breaking up with Lex?"

Lana stared out the passenger side window for nearly a minute before responding, "I have known him since we were little kids. Actually, it was when Cla, er, Boy Scout and I hit a rough patch that I ended up with Lex. Boy Scout said from the beginning Lex was a lying, manipulative bastard with delusions of grandeur and things would never last with us and he was absolutely right. I ultimately had to fake my own death to get Lex to realize things were over between the two of us. So I ended up back with Boy Scout."

Abruptly Sarah realized the big green BuyMore sign was less than a block ahead. Back at the stained glass store Lana had never explained what the term meta-humans meant. Discussing it had been her primary goal for the drive back to the BuyMore yet here they were and she still had no idea what Lana had meant. She was almost tempted to grab the smaller woman's arms and shake the answer out of her. But then she remembered how Lana had tossed around large men or knocked them unconscious without even touching them. It definitely looked like the meta-human conversation was going to have to wait for another occasion. Then Sarah realized once she had dropped off Lana, she could go search the NSA computers for the term or, if need be, discuss the topic with the General. Either way, she could try for some independent intel before listening to Lana's personal spin of the topic. For after knowing her for barely an hour, Sarah knew Lana had her own agenda and during any conversation about meta-humans Lana's personal goals would be firmly in her mind.

Pulling into the BuyMore parking lot, Sarah coasted over to where the small row of Nerd Herd cars were parked. Slipping the shifter out of gear, she pulled the hand brake before turning to Lana.

"It looks like the meta-human discussion will have to wait for another time, again."

Lana smiled back. "I'm really not trying to duck the topic. If the opportunity doesn't present itself before then, perhaps we can do a girls' night with dinner at my place to have that conversation. It could be fun and I haven't had a real reason to cook since I got out here."

Sarah glanced over to where Chuck and Casey were just getting out of their car. "Do you think we can really leave the two of them alone while this situation with LuthorCorp is hanging unfinished?"

Lana opened the passenger door of the Porsche, but looked back at Sarah. "Well, I could invite them along, too, but there are things I think the two of us need to discuss alone. Let me think about it. I'm sure I can come up with some place where they will be safe for a few hours."

"Okay," answered Sarah, as she realized she was actually looking forward to having dinner with Lana. She was an exceedingly rich girl with superhuman abilities, yet somehow it seemed like they had a lot in common. "Dinner sounds like fun."

Lana climbed out of the car then turned and stuck her head back in. "Good, I'll see you at the end of the day. And don't worry I'll keep an eye on Chuck and John."

Sarah watched as Lana walked over and joined the two guys. After a brief conversation, the three turned and headed towards the BuyMore entrance. At the door Chuck paused and gave Sarah a small nod. Then in a moment they were gone from view.

For nearly a minute Sarah sat in the idling Porsche staring blankly at the BuyMore's darkly tinted doorway. All of her training told her to trust no one and particularly not someone she had known for barely an hour. Yet she found herself trusting Lana and she simply knew Chuck did, too. What was it about the girl that instill the feeling so quickly?

Finally, Sarah shook her head. Regardless what her heart was telling her, her training told her to do what research she could. And with access to the complete computer assets of the NSA and the CIA less then five minutes away, it was time for her to do her due-diligence.

Slipping the car into gear and releasing the handbrake, Sarah headed for her usual parking spot on the opposite side of the Orange-Orange store.

Part 4

Sarah quietly slid through the back door of the Orange-Orange. Just inside was one of several secret entrances leading down into the underground command center. Two entrances were concealed within the store while another two were located across the busy street. She most frequently used the entrance from the small manager's office, but at this time of day it would mean an encounter with Carrie and Beth, who she wasn't in the mood to deal with at the moment.

So she would have the necessary freedom to come and go as required by her 'real' job, her cover position was actually as the store's manager. Therefore in addition to all of her spy responsibilities, she had to ride herd on the nine girls who staffed the store. Somehow when she had gotten into the spy business she never expected to have a group of high school girls working for her. Nor had she been expecting to have to play 'Mother Confessor' to the group. Sarah knew Carrie had just broken up with her long time boyfriend and if they crossed paths today, the girl would end up crying on her shoulder for an hour. And with everything that was going on, Sarah just didn't want to commit the time.

Therefore Sarah found herself sneaking in the back way in hopes of using the second entrance without either of the girls out front even realizing she was around. Assuming, of course, they hadn't seen her Porsche as it crossed the sprawling parking lot.

Punching her access code into the hidden keypad, Sarah was suddenly reminded of how the computer messaging system, which tied them into the General's system in the Pentagon, had been compromised the night before. Could whoever had done it also have managed to hack the command center's electronic access system? Sarah stepped through the secret doorway and then paused for a moment considering the situation. But then she merely shook her head as the sudden rush of paranoia subsided. Those feelings were something Casey continuously battled against, but they rarely bothered her.

However she hadn't descended more than three steps down the double-length staircase when some vestige of the paranoia or perhaps some subliminal cue convinced her to remove her high heels and draw her weapon before proceeding down the stairs as quietly as possible.

At the bottom of the stairs was another door requiring a fingerprint scan and a second unique password to keep out any casual intruder who had chanced to make it through the first checkpoint. By now Sarah had convinced herself there was someone inside the command center and she knew this door always made a very distinct clicking noise when the lock disengaged. She debated briefly about getting Casey as backup before proceeding, but then shook her head in disgust. Mostly likely it was just her imagination running away from her and if not, well, she was a big girl and handling situations like this was why she had her job and didn't work for real in the Orange-Orange upstairs.

Taking a calming, centering breath, Sarah placed her left thumb up against the sensor. After an interminable ten seconds, an LED on the access panel turned green and she punched in her personal security code. Then moving quickly, she positioned herself behind the door jam as the door began to slide open. When it was fully open, Sarah carefully leaned far enough through to give the corridor on the other side a quick scan.

Nothing. Feeling almost sheepish, Sarah lowered her gun as she stepped into the empty corridor. Padding down the thirty foot corridor, which was painted battleship grey like so many military installations, she relaxed her guard and allowed herself to start thinking about what would be the best approach to begin her search for information about Lana Lang and about the term 'meta-humans'. Therefore she was almost to the end of the corridor when she realized she was hearing the faint murmur of voices from the command center.

Raising her gun once again, Sarah eased quietly forward towards the open doorway. This access route made a dogleg turn upon entering the room, so she could get quite close to the center of the work area before she would have to become visible. After easing as close as she could, she paused to listen to what had to be a female voice.

"General Beckman," said the woman's voice. "Time is of the essence. Since no one is here, I feel I should proceed directly to the asset."

"Lieutenant, I understand your sense of dedication and urgency, but you need to fully appreciate the situation. The two agents assigned to the asset are very protective of him. If you don't let me contact them first, there is likely to be trouble."

Sarah immediately recognized the General's voice and also the artificial quality that meant this woman, this Lieutenant, was talking to her over the video-conference link.

"Can't you get a message to them, ma'am?" asked the woman.

"Not at the moment. We experienced a breech in our secure communication network last night. They are under orders to only correspond via this video link for the present until we can resolve the situation."

Convinced the Lieutenant had been granted permission to be in the command center by the General, Sarah lowered her gun and quietly stepped around the corner to where the majority of the space came into view.

The command center had always reminded Sarah of the information center in heart of the U.S.S. Nimitz, the aircraft carrier which had helped when she had needed an emergency extraction from Muqdisho, Somalia after the mission to negotiate the release of two American journalists from one of the local warlords had blown up in her face. Oh, the info center on the carrier had been bustling with activity while this room rarely held more than Chuck, Casey, and her, but something about the placement of the various computer and video monitors and the central conference table just triggered a flicker of recognition in her mind. Of course, since this subterranean facility had been built by the military, they probably had just implemented a standardized design.

Sarah was just about to announce her presence when she got a good look at the visitor in profile. And the first thing that struck Sarah wasn't the woman's dark blue naval officer's uniform nor was it her lustrous black hair pulled up in a tight bun nor was it her statuesque build that had to measure 38-21-34 stretched over a six foot one frame. No, what struck Sarah first was the woman's apparent youth. With her perfect body from the impossibly tiny waist to the large breasts that didn't sag a single millimeter, she didn't look a day over seventeen.

The woman must have sensed Sarah's presence and turned to look directly at her. And then Sarah finally got a good look at her face and no matter how incredible her body was, the woman's face had to be ten times as stunning. From the high cheekbones to the aquiline nose to the almost chiseled jaw line to the perfect lips, this was the face of a Helen of Troy - a face that could launch a thousand ships or single-handedly destroy whole empires.

Sarah was rendered absolutely speechless. Standing before her had to be the most beautiful woman on the planet. Sarah had never been attracted to a woman before, but she suddenly knew it would take only the tiniest shove for her to fall madly in love with this one. And a tiny voice in the back of her mind wondered if the woman had this effect on her, what would be her effect on Chuck or even Casey?

The woman moved a half step closer and Sarah's gaze was drawn to the woman's blue eyes. And while the woman's face, like her body, looked an impossibly young seventeen, her eyes seemed infinitely older and it felt like their powerful gaze had almost instantly penetrated straight to the center of Sarah's soul and immediately fathomed every secret Sarah held tight in her heart.

Who was this woman, Sarah wondered. As insane as it sounded, it felt like she was standing in the presence of some mythical Goddess.

"Ah, Agent Walker, I'm glad you're here," stated the General once Sarah had stepped within range of the video pickup.

To Sarah it felt like the words were coming from a great distance. It took an extreme act of will to tear her gaze away from the woman in front of her and turn her attention to where the General stared out from the large screen.

"General," Sarah began. When she had first started down into this sub-basement she had had so many things about which she had wanted to talk to the General, but suddenly they felt insignificant compared to finding out who this visitor was and why she was there.

Sarah glanced back at the visitor, who in modest heels was a good six inches taller than the still bare-footed Sarah. Realizing the woman could look the six foot four Chuck squarely in the eye, Sarah felt a brief flash of jealousy. Being five foot ten herself, few women towered over Sarah.

Pulling her attention away from the highly distracting woman, Sarah turned back to the screen and started again. "General, is there something going on that I should be aware of?"

The General nodded. "After last night's incident, in combination with the breech to our communication network, I felt it would be a good idea to get you and Agent Casey some temporary backup. When I looked to see who was available locally, I discovered the Lieutenant, who is with Naval Intelligence, happened to be in L.A. on what seemed to be unrelated business. But after I briefed her on the situation, it turns out her current mission might be related."

The General paused and looked off camera. After a moment an arm extended into view and handed her a piece of paper. The General spent thirty seconds reading the note before turning her attention back to Sarah.

"Something else has come up that needs my immediate attention. Lieutenant, Agent Walker, I trust the two of you can work out your overlapping assignments. Oh, and Agent Walker, the Lieutenant has a full Q-level clearance, so you don't need to hold any information back. Beckman, out."

And as abruptly as that, the bright video screen went dark and it felt like the room had dimmed almost to twilight.

"Wow," said the Lieutenant. "Is she always so terse? My boss is just the opposite and sometimes it feels like he is going to micro-manage me to death.

"Yeah, Beckman seems to give her field agents pretty much free range," answered Sarah. Then realizing they hadn't yet been truly introduced, Sarah stuck out her hand. "I'm Sarah Walker."

With a brilliant smile, the taller woman extended her hand. As their hands touched, Sarah saw protruding from under the cuffs of the woman's light blue uniform blouse what looked like heavy, wide antique silver bracelets on both wrists. Then, as she began to speak, Sarah glanced back up to her eyes.

"Diana Prince."

Part 5

"It's nice to meet you, Diana," said Sarah as the two women shook hands.

"And you, too," responded Diana as they released hands and each took a small step back.

"So, the General says you are only in L.A. on temporary assignment?" asked Sarah.

"Well, actually I just arrived in town yesterday following a lead on my current case. Nominally, my office is at the Pentagon, but I spend most of my time in the field."

Sarah tried to place Diana's subtle accent. It reminded her a little of New England, but definitely not Boston or New York. No, the more she thought about it, the more it seemed like the pseudo 'Mid-Atlantic' dialect you heard in the movies where British actresses were pretending to be American or American actresses were trying to sound British. Like everything else about Diana, this faint hint of an accent seemed to ooze sex appeal.

Forcing herself back to the matter at hand, Sarah asked. "The General mentioned there was some overlap between your case and our current situation?"

Diana nodded. "In a word - LuthorCorp. Someone in the upper echelons of the company is in pursuit of an artifact with purported supernatural properties. When word of their efforts spread through the meta-human community, it came to my attention."

Unexpectedly, there was that word again. It seemed to Sarah it had to be more than a coincidence she had never heard the word before today and then suddenly two different people had mentioned it in the last hour. And then the events back in the stained glass store quickly replayed through her mind. Lana had displayed all of those unbelievable abilities mere moments before bringing up the topic of meta-humans. Now another beautiful woman stood before her mentioning them. Was she also going to demonstrate some equally impossible skills?

"Meta-humans?" asked Sarah, intentionally stumbling slightly over the word as though it was the first time she had heard it. And since she truly didn't know anything beyond the word, the questioning tone felt perfectly natural.

"There has always been a tiny fraction of the population with mental and/or physical abilities that fall far outside the range of the human norm," answered Diana. "In ancient times they were known as Gods and Heroes. In medieval times they were called witches and wizards. In modern times they are generally referred to as meta-humans. However, I considered this a somewhat poor choice in terms. Since 'meta' is from the ancient Greek word for 'beyond', many of the meta-humans think of themselves as being part of the next step in man's evolution to something beyond Homo sapiens.

"However within the limits of the available historic data, the fraction of the population with meta-human abilities has remained relatively static since ancient times. Oh, with the greatly increased current population, the total number today is much larger, but the percent is unchanged. If meta-abilities were truly the next step in man's evolution, then the meta-humans should be a steadily increasing fraction of the population, not a steady proportion."

Sarah tried to take in what the other woman was saying, however she found herself focused on the mention of witches in the Middle Ages which was strikingly similar to what Lana had said.

"What exactly do you mean by mental or physical abilities outside the human norm?" asked Sarah. "Does it truly involve magic?"

The other woman stared into Sarah's eyes for a moment and it felt as though she was searching for a reason behind Sarah's specific question.

"Sometimes it involves magic, certainly when the gifts appear to manifest in the form of advanced mental gifts, magic is frequently involved. But for many the meta-abilities take the form of enhanced physical skills like superior speed, strength, or hand-eye coordination."

"So these, ah, meta-humans exhibit a variety of abilities? They aren't all the same?"

Diana shook her head. "No, in fact it is almost unheard of for two meta-humans to exhibit exactly the same gifts."

Sarah decided it was time to delve into the heart of the situation. "Diana, you said LuthorCorp's activities came to your attention when their inquiries spread into the meta-human community. What exactly is your connection to the meta-human community?"

Diana flashed another of her brilliant smiles and for a moment Sarah almost forgot her question. God, she is incredibly beautiful, thought Sarah again.

"Oh, I guess you could say I am the Scully and Mulder of Naval Intelligence. I am part of a very tiny department which investigates the unexplainable when it impinges on the interests of the military. In the last three years I have developed contacts with a number of meta-human individuals in the course of my work."

It was a simple, logical explanation for Diana's involvement with meta-humans, but Sarah wondered if it was her full story. If superior looks could be a meta-human ability, Diana had it in spades.

"When I was walking in, you were telling General Beckman you needed access to the asset and that time was of the essence."

Diana's face sobered, as she reached into her purse and pulled out a folded piece of paper. "LuthorCorp is in active pursuit of this artifact on a number of fronts. What few hints I have been able to find indicate the item has immense power. It is vital that I, ah, we locate it first to ensure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. If the asset has access to as much intel as the General indicated, Mr. Bartowski may be able to help with my mission. And after the attempt LuthorCorp made last night to acquire him, they would seem to agree. Although, as I said, LuthorCorp is pursuing multiple paths in search of the artifact and one of the others could bear fruit and allow them to reach it before me without their ever questioning Mr. Bartowski. So I would like to show him this sketch to see if it has any meaning to him before LuthorCorp beats me to the punch."

Diana unfolded the piece of paper and laid it on the room's central table.

Sarah looked at the piece of paper which contained a hand-drawn sketch that didn't mean anything to her. It was a simple design of a circle with short straight lines tangent to the circle along the upper and lower edges, or they could be along the left and right edges depending on the orientation of the paper. It didn't trigger anything in her memory, but who knew about Chuck. She had certainly seen him 'flash' on even less.

Sarah looked back up at Diana. The General had cleared her to be here and had divulged the secret of Chuck and the Intersect, so clearly she would have no problem if Sarah introduced Diana to Chuck. And time might be even more critical than Diana and the General realized since they weren't aware of the second attempt to snatch Chuck. Who knew how quickly LuthorCorp might try again. And if Lana was to be believed, the next attempt might involve meta-humans.

Then thinking about Lana, Sarah wondered if she should mention her to Diana. Perhaps not the meta-human part, at least in the beginning, but at least Lana's connection to LuthorCorp seemed fair game. She knew who Lana really was and Chuck must have learned it in his 'flash' and certainly must have told Casey by now. So if they all knew, it probably wouldn't bother Lana too much to have her real identity revealed. And it was only the existence of her supernatural abilities she had said she would deny.

Making her decision, Sarah turned back to Diana.

"I think you are right, time is of the essence. Let's go see Chuck right now. There have been some more recent developments the General isn't aware of. I'll explain as we walk."

Diana nodded, then looked down at herself and frowned. "How about giving me five minutes? I brought my bag with me and would like to change into something a little less conspicuous than my uniform."

Sarah nodded while feeling a little grin spread across her face. No matter what Diana wore, she would NEVER by inconspicuous.

Part 6

"It's nice to meet you, Morgan," said Lana stretching her hand across the counter from where she stood behind the Nerd Herd help desk in the middle of the store. "Chuck has told me a little . . ."

In mid-sentence Lana's voice abruptly trailed off. Chuck could see her eyes suddenly widen behind the white rimmed glasses she wore. Her gaze had left Morgan and she was now staring into the distance between the two of them in the direction of the front entrance. Her expression was one of surprise, but not fear, so it didn't seem like they were about to experience their second attack of the day.

Chuck started to turn to see what had grabbed her attention, but Morgan beat him to it. As Chuck's eyes swept past his old friend, who had just arrived for the 1 P.M. to 9 P.M. shift, he saw Morgan's mouth drop open for a second. Then, before he completed his own turn, he heard Morgan exclaim 'I think I've died and gone to heaven'.

Finally, Chuck finished his own hundred and eighty degree turn. At first he just saw Sarah striding towards them and felt the corners of his mouth turning up in a smile like they always did when she walked into the room. Some small part of his mind wondered at Lana and Morgan's unexplained reaction.

Then the woman walking beside Sarah registered and Chuck abruptly understood their reaction. The woman stood at least three or four inches taller than the already tall Sarah. She had straight black hair cascading down over her shoulders. But what had captured the others' attention was her almost unbelievable physique. Big busted and broad shouldered with a tiny, tiny waist and legs that seemed to go on forever, Chuck had never seen a build like hers outside the pages of a comic book. And as soon as that thought popped into his head, Chuck realized she was the spitting image of Princess Cybele from Warrior Angel issue number 218.

Chuck couldn't help wondering who she was. Obviously, she was with Sarah. Then as they got closer, he could see how young she was. She certainly looked like she was in high school, so most likely she was a new girl over at the Orange-Orange. And if that was the case, the Orange-Orange was going to be getting more business than ever from the guys who worked in the BuyMore. She was simply that stunning.

When the two women reached the Nerd Herd help desk, Sarah made a quick introduction.

"Ah, guys, this is Diana. Diana, this is Chuck, Lana, and Morgan."

Diana quickly stretched out her right hand to Chuck. "Chuck, I'm Diana Prince. Sarah has told me so much about you. I'm glad to finally meet you in person."

Chuck clasped the offered hand. For a moment he almost thought he heard her say her name was Princess Cybele like the comic book character he been thinking about when he first saw her. But now, seeing her up close, he knew no comic book artist would ever be able to do this woman justice with mere pencils and ink.

As his hand lingered on hers, Chuck realized this was the first time he could remember a girl ever having been at his eye level. And what eyes. They were an incredible light blue with almost a hint of silver and it felt like they were peering straight into his soul. It was impossible to hold her gaze and Chuck felt his eyes drop down to her equally stunning body. She was wearing a translucent white blouse and through the shimmer he could just make out what appeared to be a dark red bustier with lots of metallic gold trim. He had never seen anything like it. Dragging his vision away from her impressive chest his eyes swept on down to a pair of jeans that looked so tight it was a wonder she could breath.

Finally Chuck's eyes came to rest on the heavy silver bracelet adorning her wrist. It was at least three inches wide and impressively thick. If it was solid silver, it had to weigh well over a pound. Its entire surface appeared to be covered with fine engravings. It looked very old and extremely expensive. As he released her hand, he noticed her other wrist sported its identical twin.

"Those are some incredible bracelets," Chuck said, then caught a slight frown on Sarah's face out of the corner of his eye. He wondered at its cause and worried for a moment that he had made a Freudian slip and had said 'incredible breasts' instead of 'incredible bracelets', but he was certain he had said bracelets. So what could be Sarah's problem? Certainly even Sarah had to recognize how stunning Diana was, but he hadn't said anything about her appearance.

Sarah had seen Chuck 'flash' several times before. His eyes would suddenly dart back and forth like he was rapidly reading lines of data. Then he would give a little start when the 'flash' ended. But she didn't see anything like that when he shook hands with Diana just the normal once-over every guy gave a beautiful woman on first meeting. And she had really been expecting Chuck to flash on Diana. If she actually worked out of some secretive department in the Pentagon that dealt with meta-humans, certainly she should rate a spot in the Intersect. But given Chuck's lack of response to Diana, apparently she hadn't. Oh well, thought Sarah, a little confirmation of what Diana had told her would have been nice, but it looked like she would have to trust the General had verified Diana's background.

And then a more disconcerting thought struck Sarah. What if the reason Diana wasn't in the Intersect was because there was no data about meta-humans in the Intersect? The General had never mentioned meta-humans. Sarah only had Diana's and Lana's word that meta-humans existed – well, and her own observations of what Lana had been able to do; observations which became harder to believe with each passing hour. From Diana's comments there had to be hundreds, maybe thousands of meta-humans in the world, yet Sarah had never heard a whiff of them before today. Was the concept of meta-humans so mind-boggling to a 'normal' that no data about them was ever recorded and therefore no data about them existed in the Intersect?

As Sarah tried to extrapolate the significance of Chuck's not 'flashing' on Diana, the subject of her thoughts held up her right arm so the bracelet was clearly visible to everyone.

"These bracelets have been in my family for generations, passing down from Mother to Daughter."

Suddenly they heard a sharp gasp from behind them and turned to find Lana backed up as far as possible behind the desk with her right hand pressed to her forehead.

"Who are you?" Lana asked in a voice barely above a whisper. "I have this little voice in the back of my head and from the moment you lifted the bracelet, it has been shrieking in terror." Isobel had rarely tried to communicate with Lana on a verbal level since the Kryptonian tattoo had been removed. But suddenly it felt like Isobel had curled up into a little ball and was keening in some language Lana couldn't quite grasp. From her startling reaction, it certainly seemed like Isobel had encountered those bracelets before. With an effort Lana erected a mental wall between herself and Isobel. It didn't completely cut her off, but it did reduce the witch's wailing to a point where it felt like Lana could think. And then with her head clearer, Lana could feel the power radiating from the bracelets, from other objects secreted about Diana's body, and even, Lana was sure, from Diana herself. Whoever this Diana was, she had access to a lot of magical power – certainly equal to Isobel's when she had been at her peak.

As Lana slowly pulled her hand away from her head and straighten up, Diana stepped closer.

"Are you okay?" asked Diana with a note of concern in her voice.

Lana nodded. Then after a quick glance at the others, she gestured for the towering Diana to lean down so their heads were close and on the same level. Speaking in a whisper, Lana stated, "We need to speak in private."

Diana leaned back and looked down into Lana's eyes. After a few seconds, she nodded. "Soon."

Then Diana turned back to Chuck. "Chuck, is there somewhere we can speak, ah, privately?"

Chuck stared at Diana for a moment and then glanced at Sarah, who nodded. He had been so overwhelmed by Diana's extreme youth and beauty, it had never occurred to him Diana might be an agent like Sarah.

"Sure," answered Chuck striving to keep his voice lighter than the way he really felt. "We have a break room in back. If anyone is in there, well, I think we can manage to kick them out for a few minutes."

Chuck gestured towards the back of the store. Sarah and Diana started moving in the direction he had indicated, but hadn't gone more than three steps when Diana paused and turned back.

"Lana, would you join us, please?" asked Diana in a tone that projected a surprising amount of authority for someone who looked so young. "I think this will involve you, too."

Lana nodded, more than a little surprised at the request. From their conversation in her car, it certainly seemed like Sarah had never heard of meta-humans before and yet less than an hour later she shows up with a young girl in tow who radiated power at an unbelievable level. Who was this Diana Prince? And exactly who did Sarah and Casey work for? She hadn't had an opportunity to do any checking as she had been stuck here in the BuyMore since they had returned from the stained glass store. And she hadn't heard anything back from Chloe either. Whoever the two bodyguards worked for, it had to be a major player.

Lana had just started to follow the other two women when they were interrupted by Morgan.

"Hey, Chuck. What's going on? What can you possibly need to talk about in private that you can't talk about here?" asked Morgan, his voice taking on the whiny tone of a child told to go play while the adults discussed grown-up things.

Chuck immediately started trying to come up with some plausible story to deflect Morgan without hurting his feelings more than necessary. The longer he had the Intersect, the harder it seemed to be to lie to his life-long best friend. Oh, he understood everything Casey and Sarah and even the General had said about how letting his family and friends in on his big 'secret' would only put them into more danger, but their lives already had been on the line more times than he could count. It almost felt like they deserved to know the truth.

But even if they did deserve the truth, Chuck knew this was not the moment to blurt it out. With Lana, and now Diana, entering his secret life today, he barely knew what was going on – let alone how to explain it. So Chuck tried to focus on some excuse Morgan would find believable. And to be believable, Chuck knew it had to involve something Morgan was familiar with and would accept. As he had done so many times before, Chuck started fabricating a cover story involving his sister, Ellie, and 'Captain Awesome'.

Then, just as Chuck opened his mouth to speak, Diana cut him off.

"Morgan," Diana began while staring intently into his eyes. "What we will be discussing is the most boring thing you can imagine. You have no interest in wasting your time when there is a customer near the front of the store who needs your help. Go Now."

By the time Diana stopped speaking Morgan's eyes seemed to have glazed over. Then he blinked and turned to Chuck.

"Hey, Chuck, I see a customer out front who needs some assistance. I'll catch you later."

Then without a further glance at any of the three knockout women, Morgan turned and walked briskly away.

"How did you do that? Hypnosis?" asked Sarah. Then with a grin, she added, "And do you give lessons?"

"Ah, count me in for lessons, too," said Chuck, as he stared at Morgan's retreating back.

"Me, three," echoed even Lana.

Diana gave a small shrug as she got the group moving towards the back of the store again. "It's just a small gift I have. It works best on animals, but sometimes it also works on humans with particularly receptive minds."

Chuck almost bristled as he mentally substituted 'simple minds' for 'receptive minds'. But then he tried to shrug it off, if Morgan at almost thirty was still working as a clerk in a BuyMore, perhaps it did say something about the quality of his mind. Then Chuck forced himself to remember Morgan was only eight months older than he was. And if working here said something about Morgan, didn't it say almost the same thing about him? Would Diana's hypnotic gift work just as easily on him?

As Chuck followed the three women towards the back of the store, his mood was a lot less upbeat then it should have been with three of the cutest little butts he had ever seen available to ogle.

Part 7

Lana led the others into the break room. Glancing back, she was again struck by how tall the other two women were. Both of them were wearing modest heels while she was wearing simple penny loafers. This combination of footwear left Sarah a good seven inches taller than her and Diana almost a foot taller and an equal in height to Chuck and maybe even Clark. At one time this would have bothered her a lot, but surprisingly the acquisition of the nanosuit had seemed to change things. When you knew you were by far the strongest person in the room, height no longer seemed like such a significant factor.

At their entry, the room had only one other occupant, Lester. Lana hadn't spoken to him since their encounter right after her first arrival, but she had seen the glances he had been sending her way. She was trying to figure out a way to ease him out of the room without further antagonizing him, when Chuck jumped in.

"Lester, out, now!"

Lester had been sitting at the break table. He had looked up when the door swung open and couldn't believe his eyes. First the new girl, Lana Fordman, walked in. She was followed by Chuck's girlfriend, Sarah. And right behind her was a woman he had never seen before, but who made Lana and Sarah look utterly ordinary in comparison. Finally, bring up the rear, was Chuck. What was going on? He had worked with Chuck for a long time and Chuck had always been a geek who struggled to get a date, just like most of the other guys who worked at the BuyMore. Then suddenly out of nowhere Sarah had shown up one day. And now it was like Chuck had developed some 'chick magnet' superpower that only attracted women of supermodel caliber. What the hell was going on?

Chuck's brusque use of his name broke Lester's reverie. One look at Chuck's face convinced him this wasn't the time to argue. Lester rose to his feet and didn't say a word until he was passing Chuck and was almost out of the door. "Jeez, Chuck, haven't you ever heard of sharing?"

As Lester stepped out of the room, Casey appeared seemingly out of nowhere. As he made to move passed, Lester shook his head. "I don't know if you want to go in there, Der Führer seems to be on the rampage."

Casey stared from Lester to Chuck. Lester rarely expressed a disparaging word about Chuck. They all knew Chuck mostly ran things in the BuyMore while Big Mike stayed back in his office. And Chuck usually covered for most of the hijinks the others got into unless things really got out of hand. So Casey was more than a little surprised at Lester's tone.

But then Casey remembered his job at the BuyMore was just a cover and the BuyMore's social dynamics should be irrelevant as long as they didn't interfere with his job of protecting the Intersect. So, as soon as Casey stepped into the break room and closed the door behind him, he tried to forget all about Lester Patel.

"Chuck, what's going on?" demanded Casey, as he turned back to face the others. He had seen Sarah lead the tall, stunning brunette into the store and then watched as the four of them had headed into the back. He had no idea who the girl was or why Sarah had brought her. There seemed to be a good chance she had been sent by the General, but in case she wasn't he didn't want to say anything to give away the true situation.

He also didn't understand why they had brought Lana Lang into the break room with them. Unless Sarah or Chuck had new intel, they had to assume she might be the enemy.

Before Chuck could answer, Diana spoke up.

"You're John Casey, correct?" Diana asked while making it sound more like a statement than a question.

When he gave a curt nod, she continued. "I'm Lieutenant Diana Prince, Naval Intelligence." Her voiced sounded as young as she looked, yet she still managed to project a commanding tone.

Lana stared at Diana and felt her eyes flick on to Sarah and Casey. Why hadn't she guessed Sarah and Casey worked for the government? Suddenly, in hindsight it seemed so obvious. When she had first discovered LuthorCorp's interest, she had assumed it was a case of industrial espionage, but now it was clearly something else, however just what she wasn't sure.

Diana saw the uneasy glance Casey shot in Lana's direction. "John, Lana is one of the 'good guys'. You can trust me."

"Trust you, Lieutenant?" exclaimed Casey with a disbelieving expression on his face. "We have barely met. I haven't even seen any proof you ARE a Lieutenant."

Sarah also shot an uneasy glance in Lana's direction before speaking. She hadn't been expecting Diana to reveal they were working for the government. And how could Diana suddenly be so certain Lana was one of the 'good guys'? Not that Sarah had any reason to doubt her, as that was her impression of Lana as well.

"Casey, the General introduced Diana to me over the vid-link. She is who she says she is."

For a moment they all stood and stared at each other. Everyone had more information then they had had five minutes earlier, yet not a single one of them knew the complete story of all the others.

Diana reached into her bag and pulled out the folded piece of paper.

"Chuck, I need you to take a look at this," she said as she smoothed the page out on the top of the table.

Chuck glanced at Sarah, who nodded.

Chuck walked over to the table and it seemed like he barely saw the symbol sketched on the page when the 'flash' started.

At first there didn't seem to be any text or audio, just a stream of images. . . .

. . . One hundred fifty seven shots of a crash site deep in some arid mountains. As each one flashed briefly through Chuck's consciousness, it became more and more obvious this had been no ordinary aircraft. . . .

. . . Eighty three shots from what looked like something straight from the Fox show 'Alien Autopsy'. They showed, in graphic detail, surgically garbed figures doing a dissection of a humanoid figure with mottled green skin and triple jointed limbs. . . .

. . . Fourteen shots of a gold ring with an embossed emblem matching the figure from Diana's sketch. . .

. . . Then the images in the flash became less structured and were a jumble of photos and videos showing a regiment of tanks on maneuver and then row after row of gold bars. . .

With a gasp, Chuck jerked upright from where he had been leaning over the table.

"What did you see?" asked Sarah, as she recognized the signs that Chuck's 'flash' had ended.

"The symbol," began Chuck shakily, as the aftereffects of the 'flash' still coursed through his head and added to the lingering effects of the two previous 'flashes' he had experienced since Lana had first arrived less than four hours earlier. "The symbol is from a ring. The ring was taken from an alien body found four years ago at a crash site in Outer Mongolia. After three months of study, the ring was relocated to Fort Knox for safekeeping."

Lana gaze shifted from Chuck to Diana and finally fixed on Sarah. "Sarah, why were you pretending earlier that you had never heard of meta-humans when you are obviously working with them?"

Sarah turned and stared at Lana. "What?"

"Chuck. He is obviously some variation of a clairvoyant. I met one before - a long time ago. She could see your future by merely touching your hand. Apparently, Chuck has some similar gift." Lana paused for a moment then turned to face Chuck more directly. "That's how you knew who I was. When we shook hands this morning, you got a glimpse of who I really am."

Both Sarah and Chuck were shaking their heads 'no', but it was Diana who spoke.

"You are essentially correct, Lana," said Diana. Sarah and Chuck turned to stare at her, as she continued. "Oh, the details of Chuck's abilities are somewhat different than what you surmised, but the end results are essentially the same. Now if we could focus on the current situation, people."

Diana turned from Lana to Chuck before continuing. "Chuck, do you have any more information on the ring? Any special properties it possesses?"

Chuck shook his head. "No. It was found on the alien's body. After a couple of months of study it was moved to Fort Knox."

"Why Fort Knox?" asked Sarah. "Why not freakin' Area 51?"

She had meant it to be facetious, but Diana answered her seriously.

"Inter-service rivalries. Area 51 is Air Force. I'm presuming the recovery operation for the downed alien spaceship was Army." Diana paused to pick up the piece of paper and put it back into her bag. "We need to retrieve the ring and move it to a more secure location."

"Why?" asked Sarah. She knew all the craziness of the last twenty-four hours must be getting to her, as she wasn't usually this sarcastic. "Isn't Fort Knox secure enough for you? Or is it just a case of your being Navy instead of Army?"

Diana shook her head. "If we could determine the ring's location, so could LuthorCorp."

"But it's in Fort Knox," said Chuck echoing Sarah's earlier comment.

Diana turned towards Lana. "Lana, if I dropped you at the installation's front gate, how long would it take you to retrieve the ring?"

Lana glanced at Chuck, Sarah, and Casey. It was obvious they didn't run into crazy situations like this very often whether Chuck was a meta-human or not. But it barely felt outside the range of what passed as normal for her in the last eight years. She could tell by the tone of Diana's voice that she was serious and with the strong magically 'vibe' she was still getting from her, she had a strong suspicion Diana had been through a lot of things like this before, too.

Understanding what Diana was really asking was whether the ring was safe from LuthorCorp in its current location, Lana realized she was going to have to lay some of her cards on the table in the same way Chuck had done when he had used his 'gift' to jump them from Diana's sketch all the way to the ring and its location. Therefore Lana answered truthfully to the best of her ability.

"Ah, does it need to be removed without anyone noticing it's gone or are we talking full frontal attack?"

Diana shrugged.

"Well, I would prefer to have time to do a little research before making any such estimate, but I'll have to go on what I remember from old History Channel shows which hinted at the security of the facility. Ideally, if I had to do it without raising any alarms, I would want a few hours so I could sneak in at the next shift change for the guards. If they opened the doors to let people through, I am sure I could get in without tripping any of the alarms.

"If speed was more important than stealth, hmmm, I think I could be in and out in five minutes using a brute force approach."

"What are you talking about? Use a brute force approach against Fort Knox? It would take tanks to get through its defenses and Fort Knox is the primary training center for Army tank crews. You would have to get your tanks through theirs before you could even reach the gold depository," stated Casey pulling his gaze from where it had rested on Diana's mesmerizing face for the past couple of minutes and finally rejoining the conversation.

Now it was Lana's turn to shrug. "Diana asked if I could get in and I believe the answer is 'yes'." Her own response made Lana wonder what Diana really knew about her and how she knew. Was it simply based on Diana's estimate of her magical 'gifts', as Sarah had doubtlessly explained them to her, or had she had a previous encounter with Oliver and his guys?

"The important thing is not whether Lana can get into Fort Knox," said Diana trying to take control of the conversation. "The important question is whether LuthorCorp can get in."

"If they had time for planning and intelligence gathering, I believe the answer is yes and I doubt they would even need meta-humans to do it," stated Lana. "I mean it would be different if we were talking about removing forty truck loads of gold, but we are talking just one ring."

"What is so special about this ring?" asked Casey. "Why would anyone want to go to so much bother or risk?"

Diana shook her head. "I don't know. My contacts indicate that symbol is associated with an artifact of great power, but I haven't learned anything more definite."

Something had been nagging at the back of Lana's mind and suddenly it clicked.

"Ah, guys. When is the last time you swept the store for bugs?"

Casey turned to look at her. "I do it twice a week." His voice trailed off for a moment as he realized what she was thinking. "Shit. After last night's shoot-out, I spent the next few hours dealing with the General and others in Washington. I didn't get to the store early enough to do it this morning. Shit."

"What?" asked Chuck, although if he had taken a minute to think about it, he could have worked it out for himself.

"The call for the job at the stained glass store had been legit," explained Sarah, who also immediately understood the situation and was kicking herself for having this conversation in the store. Although, she conceded, having it at 'The Zebra' might have been just as problematic after the previous day's cyber-penetration. "So how did they know where to find us unless they have a bug somewhere?"

"And if they have bugs in the store, then they probably have a bug in this room," said Lana, completing Sarah's remark. "Therefore we have to assume we just told them exactly the one thing they were looking for."

End of Chapter 3


	4. Chapter 4

4/4/2010

Chuck versus LuthorCorp

Chapter 4

Part 1

"I hate always being told to wait in the car," said Chuck, as he stared out the window of the rental car at the large white granite structure brilliantly lit by floodlights.

After hearing all the stories on TV and in the movies about Fort Knox, he had expected security far more impressive than what was visible on the surface. He had pictured the gold depository, or the United States Bullion Depository, as it was officially called, to be located at the center of the sprawling Army base and that civilians wouldn't be able to get within miles of its own security perimeter. But that hadn't turned out to be the case at all. The Gold Depository sat at the edge of the Army base and a public four-lane highway ran along one side. The car in which he and Lana sat was parked on the frontage road on the far side of the highway and yet they were still barely a quarter of a mile from the building. Oh, several intervening fences, also lit by floodlights, separated them from the structure, but none of it looked particularly imposing or threatening.

"Yeah, I don't really appreciate being stuck out here either," answered Lana. "If they run into trouble, I would feel a lot better if I was with them."

Since she had gotten such a strong 'magical' vibe from Diana, Lana had just stuck with the 'witch' cover story she had originally given Sarah after the events at the stained glass store rather than go into the true nanotechnology basis for her unique abilities. Diana had merely lifted an eyebrow, when Lana had given her explanation to Chuck and Casey. Obviously the girl from Naval Intelligence knew or suspected the truth, but she had let it slide.

Chuck had to nod in agreement with Lana's comment. How often hadn't his presence and real-time access to the Intersect made a difference if the situation turned sour? But Sarah, Casey, and Diana all had the government credentials needed to at least get them through the front door and neither he nor Lana did.

Usually, he was in radio or cell phone contact with Sarah and John in situations like this, but not tonight. At the first checkpoint beyond where they had parked the other rental car, their three compatriots had been forced to turn over all of their electronic devices. That had been over forty-five minutes ago and he now had no idea of their current situation. They could have already acquired the ring and be on their way out or they could still be sitting at the first checkpoint waiting for paperwork. God, he hated being stuck on the outside at times like this.

Chuck was just starting to glance away from the distant building and over to Lana when a vehicle pulled up behind them. The reflected light in the rearview mirror from its powerful headlights nearly blinded him. From the angle of the light, the vehicle was too tall to be a car.

"Good, they're finally here," said Lana, as she opened the passenger side door.

"Who's here?" asked Chuck.

Lana paused with one leg still in the car. "Backup. Just in case things go wrong, I wanted a little more reinforcements."

This was the first Chuck had heard about 'reinforcements'. If serious trouble came up, they would have the full might of the military on their side including hundreds of battle tanks within a couple of miles. So why did Lana think they needed backup? And did Sarah or John know about this backup? He knew Lana was supposed to be one of the 'good guys', but just for a moment he had to wonder. Was the backup for them or was the backup for her? Was she just waiting for Sarah and the others to retrieve the ring from the depository only to then make a play for it herself?

He hated having these nagging doubts, but the whole situation had been so extraordinary from the moment Lana had walked into his life – had it been only twelve hours ago? He had 'flashed' on her the moment their hands had first touched and there had been an unbelievable amount of data about her and her friends and her business associates. Yet, the longer he was around her, the less complete the data felt. It was like there was some important tidbit that would explain everything that was missing. Something even more important than the fact Lana was some kind of metahuman with magical 'witch' powers. And the feeling had only grown after meeting Diana Prince. He had never 'flashed' on her yet it felt almost like he should have. There was just something about her that made her feel more important than a mere Lieutenant in the Navy should.

Lana had shut her door and was walking back towards the vehicle pulled up behind them. Chuck didn't see any choice but following her. Quickly, he climbed out and then walked around the back of the car to join Lana on the passenger side of what turned out to be a black utility van. They were on public property and had every right to be there, but Chuck suddenly felt like this was some kind of clandestine meeting and they needed to be out of the direct view of the Gold Depository and its doubtlessly plentiful security cameras.

Two men had just joined Lana from the van as Chuck walked up. The first, a tall blonde of about thirty, Chuck instantly recognized from the earlier flash as the billionaire industrialist, Oliver Queen. The second man, or rather boy as he didn't look much over eighteen, was far more average in appearance with dark blonde hair and standing about five foot seven inches tall.

"Oliver, Bart, this is Chuck," said Lana by way of introductions.

Oliver stuck out his right hand. "Nice to meet you, Chuck."

As Chuck shook the offered hand, he couldn't help but feel the other man's powerful appraising gaze. As the multi-billionaire CEO of a company employing tens of thousands of people, Chuck suspected Queen was very practiced at sizing people up in a single glance. What would his judgment be of someone who had spent the last six years working in a BuyMore?

"It is nice to meet you, too, Mister Queen," began Chuck with just a slight catch in his voice. "And thanks for letting us use your plane. I have never been in such a plush jet. Well, truthfully, I have never been in any private jet before."

God, thought Chuck, I'm blathering on like an idiot. The younger of the two men facing him gave a quiet snicker, but Queen just smiled graciously.

"None of this Mister Queen crap. Call me Oliver, or Ollie. And as far as the plane, well, I still owe Lana a favor or two."

"Yeah, Oliver," appended Lana. "Thanks for the ride. I'm glad one of your planes was out in L.A. this afternoon."

Lana paused for just a moment before continuing. "Where's Clark? I thought he was coming with you."

Oliver shook his head. "He said he was in the middle of things in Metropolis and he would meet us here."

Oliver glanced back over his shoulder at the large white building visible through the van's windows. "What is going on that you needed us here? And particularly if it may need Clark and his big guns."

Chuck had no idea who this 'Clark' was that Lana and Queen were referring to. No one named Clark had come up in the 'flash'. And what did 'big guns' mean?

"And is that really Fort Knox over there?" added Bart with more than a hint of excitement in his voice.

"We are just here in case a problem comes up. And yes, that is really Fort Knox. But Bart, please don't do anything stupid or impulsive. Hopefully, my associates, who are already over there, will be able to retrieve what we are here for and then we can all go home."

"You have people breaking into Fort Knox? This is so cool," exclaimed Bart.

"Bart," said Lana in a stern tone Chuck had only seen her use before on Lester. "Nobody is breaking into Fort Knox. My associates are duly authorized government agents and they are simply in the process of relocating a metahuman artifact from here to another government facility."

"Did you say metahuman?" asked Oliver.

Lana shrugged. "That's only a guess on my part. The artifact is a ring which was found on a body at the crash site of an alien spaceship. From what we have heard, the ring is supposed to have some special properties, so I have been thinking of it as metahuman, but it could be something completely different."

"And you're expecting trouble?"

Again Lana shrugged. "I hope not, but I know LuthorCorp is also on the trail of this artifact. I have had two run-ins with their black ops teams in the last twenty-four hours out in L.A. They were all just low-level operatives, so I don't know for certain that it was related to this artifact, but I am going to assume it is."

Lana paused and then asked Oliver directly. "Do you know who is behind those LuthorCorp teams?"

Oliver shook his head. "No. It wasn't me. And I don't know for certain, but I don't think it was Tess. Are you sure they were from LuthorCorp?"

Lana thought about it for a minute. "I don't have absolute proof. I just recognized the leader from the first group. His name is Dominic Senatori. He definitely worked for Lex about seven years ago. I haven't crossed paths with him in about five years, but assumed he still worked for LuthorCorp in some capacity. However when I ran into him again last night, I didn't directly question him because I didn't want to reveal I was involved. Then when I encountered the second team less than twelve hours later, I assumed they came from the same source. But it really boils down to my assumption about Senatori."

Oliver glanced at his watch. "I have never heard of this Senatori, but I will make inquiries into whether he is still employed by LuthorCorp in the morning."

Abruptly, they felt as much as heard a loud 'thump'. They were all just glancing around when they heard a second one.

"There," exclaimed Bart pointing in the direction of the Gold Depository. "What the hell is that?"

They all turned to stare at the large open field surrounding the granite building. Even as they watched, a third large ten foot diameter silver sphere suspended below a black para-sail version of a parachute audibly smacked to the ground. As its parachute fluttered down and half concealed the sphere, three more of the spheres settled to the ground nearby. They glanced up and illuminated by the flood lights lining the security fences, they saw at least another half dozen of the spheres.

A mechanical sound from the field drew their attention back down from the sky. A silver column was extending up out of the upper surface of each of the spheres already on the ground. When the column reached a height of ten feet, it rapidly began to unfold into five separate pieces and then each of these five pieces fanned out into four segments that appeared to droop down to the ground on five sides of each sphere.

When the five tips reached the ground, the central sphere began to lift into the air until it hung suspended fifteen feet above the ground beneath the wide spread legs like the body of a giant daddy-long-legs spider.

"Oh shit," whispered Oliver, as though he was suddenly afraid any louder sound might attract the machines' attention.

"What is it, Oliver?" asked Lana while subconsciously mimicking his tone.

"Have you got Clark on speed dial? I think we are going to need him sooner not later, although these things might be out of his league, too."

Lana was already pulling out her phone as the first of the rapidly moving machines reached the outer security fence. A large shower of sparks appeared as its front-most leg touched the highly electrified fence, but it lasted only a moment before the device had ripped through the chain link fence while hardly slowing.

"I thought they were still in the conceptual stage," said Oliver, his voice returning to a more normal tone after the initial shock. "Those are war-bots. They were being designed to clear a path through hostile forces before sending in the regular troops."

"So, are these weapons another of Lex's secret projects?" asked Lana.

If it hadn't been so dark, the others would have seen the chagrin expression on Oliver's face. "Ah, no. They were one of Queen Industries' secret projects."

Lana stared at Oliver for a moment, but then her attention was drawn back to the action across the highway.

As they watched, the first war-bot moved forward. The area between the first and second rings of fences was protected by landmines. The machine's left forward leg must have come down on one of them as there was a brilliant flash of light and a loud boom followed by a burst of flames. The lower half of the machine's leg was destroyed and it wavered for a moment. Then its remaining four legs seemed to shift position and it continued to move forward.

Almost at the same time as it began to move again, they saw a small hatch open on its lower surface. A small projector device extended out through the opening and immediately a beam of light flashed out towards the ground directly in front of the machine. The beam of light must have connected with another mine as there was a similar flash of light and small explosion as had occurred when it lost its first leg.

Almost at once the beam of light flicked to another spot and there was another explosion. As more of the machines reached the first fence, they, too, opened fire on the mine field.

"The war-bots were supposed to be armed with a three megawatt laser as their primary offensive system," said Oliver. "It appears whoever built these machines got that part of them working, too. And if it is truly in that power range, it will burn straight through any person who gets in its way."

Chuck couldn't take his eyes from the scene in front of them. There were at least a dozen of the giant spider machines on the ground now. It had taken him only a moment to realize what they reminded him of – the very similar spider weapon from one of the original episodes of the old 'Jonny Quest' cartoon he had always enjoyed as a kid. That spider machine had been able to shrug off hits from tanks and other artillery pieces. If he remembered correctly, in the show it had taken a powerful laser weapon to ultimately defeat it. If that turned out to be the case here, where were they going to be able to come up with a weapon like that?

Then Chuck realized, if these machines were attacking tonight, they had to be after the ring. And Sarah and Casey were probably in that building somewhere. How were they going to get them out of there with these machines rampaging about?

As Chuck and the others stood there looking at the ongoing carnage below, they abruptly saw a flash of light on the roof of the depository building. Immediately, a white contrail shot down from the roof towards one of the war machines. Someone was up on the roof with some kind of an antiaircraft missile.

The missile, which was designed for targets thousands or tens of thousands of feet away, crossed the intervening three hundred foot gap almost too fast for the eye to follow. With a brilliant flash, it appeared to detonate right against the side of one of the spheres.

"Wow, did you see that?" exclaimed Bart. "I had to shift into accelerated time to see it, but the bug's laser took out the missile less than ten feet before it would have hit."

Then, even as the person or persons on the roof fired off another missile, the nearest war-bot leaped across the intervening gap and began scrabbling up the side of the building clearly headed for the roof with its nest of defenders.

Before the spider-machine reached the roof, where it would doubtlessly open up with its laser, the four witnesses on the far side of the divided road were startled from their reverie by a pair of large helicopters roaring passed their position and headed into a landing zone between the inner and outer perimeter fences that had just been cleared of land mines by the combined efforts of the war-bots.

As the helicopters touched down and began disgorging their payload of heavily armed and armored men, Oliver with a surprisingly large effort pulled his eyes away from the spectacle and turned towards Lana. She was standing there gaping at the mayhem like the others. The cell phone in her hand had been all but forgotten.

"Lana," began Oliver, as he reached out to give her a tap on the shoulder. "You need to make that call now."

Lana nodded and turned her attention to the phone. She hit the speed dial for Clark before lifting it to her ear. The phone rang three times and then rolled to Clark's voicemail.

"Clark, where are you? We urgently need your help. The Fort Knox Gold Depository is under attack by these giant, monstrous robot spider things. We need your help to stop them. Get here as soon as you can."

Lana turned to Oliver. "Clark's not answering. I'll try Chloe in case she knows where he is, but we better assume he isn't going to arrive in time to help. Since you were behind the development of these things, what have you got stashed away in the back of the van that will let us defeat them?"

Oliver ran his right hand through his short blonde hair. "The only thing I have that will have even a chance is some C4, but if they followed my design specs, the bodies have a six inch thick laminate outer shell with layers of ceramic, Kevlar, and titanium. They are designed to withstand armor-piercing shells from Abrams main battle tanks and that's assuming the shell even makes it passed the laser defense system. And even if the C4 would work, I don't see how we are going to deliver it."

"Bart and I will deliver it," answered Lana as she started moving towards the back of the van. "However, instead of going for the kill, I think we will have to be satisfied with merely immobilizing them. You saw how the mine took out the leg of the first one? Well, if we take out a couple of legs that should put them out of commission."

Oliver took a moment and then nodded. "Yeah, that might work. However you will have to take out at least three of their legs to stop them. They are designed with five legs, but it is largely for redundancy. They are nearly as effective with only three functional legs. Unless whoever built them came up with some effective pogo-stick mode, they are helpless once they are down to one or two legs. The only problem is, I don't think I have enough explosives to take out three legs on a dozen of the machines."

"Well, we have to start somewhere," said Lana. "Perhaps once we are started some alternate method will become apparent."

"Okay," said Oliver opening the van's back door and climbing inside. "Let's get to work."

Part 2

Sarah glanced down at her watch for what felt like the thousandth time since they had been separated from Chuck and Lana. It had only been forty-five minutes, but it felt ten times longer. Usually, Chuck got left behind because they were entering some extremely dangerous situation, but this time it was different. Chuck had been left behind because he didn't have the necessary governmental clearances, or at least clearances they were at liberty to divulge to the personnel here at Fort Knox. And for awhile Sarah had begun to wonder if even they had sufficient clearance to get in.

The depository's primary defenses seemed to consist of a series of massive bank vault style doors imbedded in equally massive walls. There had been one of the doors just inside the ornate outer doors of the building, a second at the access point to the elevators and stairways leading to the lower levels where the gold and other valuables were stored, and then a third door on each underground level. And each vault door required two separate combinations to be entered by different individuals and no individual had the combination to more than one door. So it had taken six men to get them through all three doors separating the outside world from the sublevel where the ring was stored.

Obviously, thought Sarah, this complicated system prevented the loss of any valuables if a single person turned bad or was somehow coerced. But it certainly slowed things in a situation like this. She was just glad the General had called ahead, warning of their arrival or they might have spent hours waiting for the required six men to be rounded up.

And this system would be an absolute disaster in a real emergency. Of course, if the emergency required removing the stockpiled gold, it might not make a difference. Apparently it wasn't a big secret just a detail she had never known, but Fort Knox currently held just over nine million pounds of gold. Like the line from the old James Bond movie, 'Goldfinger', you weren't going to quickly load and move an amount of gold that would fill over one hundred fifty semi trucks.

Even with the advanced warning from the General, it still felt like it had taken forever to get this far between the endless forms to be signed and the slow process of entering the combinations and then moving the large doors that could handle the passage of full sized trucks. Sarah had had this nagging feeling ever since they had gotten off the plane at the Louisville Airport that they were running out of time. And with each small delay the feeling had gotten worse.

Now that the final large door had been passed, she had hoped they were almost finished, but as she looked at the corridors stretching to their left and right with double doors spaced out at thirty foot intervals along the outer wall, Sarah knew it could be awhile yet.

As each massive vault door was passed, the two men with its combo had peeled off from their little entourage. Now, they were down to six people: the three of them, two United States Mint Police with M-16s, and Mike Spencer, the Treasury Department duty officer.

After thumbing to the third page of the document attached to his clip board, Spencer looked up and said. "The item you are here to collect, artifact 435-ADR-1953-Z08, is located in vault 4-7B. If you will follow me, it should only be about a ten minute walk."

"In ten minutes, we should be able to cover about half a mile. That would seem to take us beyond the security perimeter up on the ground level. Aren't you worried about someone tunneling down from outside your defenses?" asked Casey, stepping up beside Spencer as the other man started walking down the right corridor.

"Ah, that would be the case if we were going to be walking in a straight line, but each level is roughly square and surrounds the central elevator and stairwell shaft. Each level only has a single entrance via a blast door like the one we just came through. Since the gold is so heavy and cumbersome to move, it is generally kept in the vaults on the side nearest the door. Lighter, more portable items like historic documents and other artifacts are typically stored in the further vaults. Unfortunately, the item you are here about is on the opposite side of this level and we will have to circle all the way around the central shaft area to reach it."

"And to answer your second question," Spencer continued. "Each sublevel has an array of seismic sensors to detect anyone attempting to tunnel in from the outside. They are quite sensitive. It did take a lot of effort to calibrate them to tell the difference between someone digging and the Army playing with their heavy tanks. We still get the occasional false alarm, but I think it helps keep us on our toes."

Casey nodded as he gazed around them. The corridor they were in was painted the same drab gray of most military or governmental facilities dating from the 1930s. The doors they passed looked like they had come straight from some old prison. They were constructed from heavy bars and used a key-lock in place of the combination locks on the primary doors. Enough light leaked into these vaults from the corridor to allow him to see the first couple of rows of racks filled with gleaming gold bars. As they passed their fourth doorway leading into yet another room filled with gold bars, the enormity of what a hundred and fifty billion dollars worth of gold looked like began to sink in.

They had just reached the first corner when red lights mounted high on the walls at forty foot intervals began to flash.

"What's that?" asked Casey barely beating Sarah to the punch.

"Those are the seismic monitors I just mentioned," replied Spencer, as he ground to a halt. "I should see what is happening."

Before he could make a move towards the distant heavy blast door, loud sirens began blaring in addition to the flashing red lights. Then almost drowning out the sirens came an announcement over the P.A. system. "Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert! Perimeter security has been breached. This is not a drill."

"I have to get back upstairs," shouted Spenser to be heard over the noise.

He had barely started moving when Diana grabbed his arm. "No. They are here for the artifact. We have to secure it first."

Spencer was pulling at her strong grip when they all felt the shudder pass through the facility. A large explosion had just occurred somewhere far above.

Spencer's eyes darted around. Then he pulled a large key ring from his belt and tossed it to one of the armed guards. "George, you and Dave go with them. The key you need is labeled 4-7B. I have to get back upstairs."

Pulling his arm free from Diana's grasp, the man began running back the way they had come.

As another tremor shook the deeply buried corridor, Diana broke into a run. "Come on, we need to get the ring."

Immediately, Sarah and Casey sprinted after her. The two guards took a moment to unsling their M-16s before racing along behind the others.

The five ran down the next long corridor. Diana steadily pulled away. As she rounded the final corner she had opened up almost a twenty yard lead.

Sarah was breathing hard and could feel a catch starting in her side as she reached the corner. She thought she was in good shape, but she hadn't been ready for a two hundred meter sprint. As she slowed to make the corner, another much larger tremor shook the corridor and almost knocked her to her knees. Behind her, she heard at least one of the guards slam into the wall and then collapse to the floor.

Looking forward, Sarah saw Diana was now almost a hundred feet ahead but had slowed to scan the walls above the doorways. Sarah had noticed the numbers located above each door and knew Diana must be looking for their goal. Quickly, Sarah turned back. The guard with the keys was sitting on the floor rubbing at his head. Running back, Sarah grabbed the keys and then raced after the other woman.

Sarah was still seventy-five feet behind when she saw Diana stop in front of one of the heavily barred doors. When Diana turned and stared back in her direction, Sarah lifted the key ring aloft and gave it an obvious shake. Just then another, much closer tremor shook the corridor. Sarah was thrown against the wall and was momentarily stunned.

Shaking her head, Sarah forced herself back to her feet. As she tried to force her feet back to a run, she saw Diana take one last look in her direction before turning back to the heavy door. For a moment Sarah thought she must have hit her head harder than she thought as she watched the other woman take a firm grasp on the door with both hands. Then with a sudden hard jerk and a loud screech that was audible over the still blaring alarms, the heavy door ripped free from its anchors set deep in the wall. Holding it firmly in her upraised hands, Diana turned and lightly tossed it down the corridor in the opposite direction as though it weighed twenty pounds rather than its actual seven hundred twenty three.

What the fuck, thought Sarah, as she momentarily stared at the now useless keys she still held in her hand. This morning, Lana tossed men around merely by pointing at them. Now, Diana rips steel doors off their hinges. What was going on? What were they in the middle of?

Diana had disappeared through the now open doorway by the time Sarah got herself moving forward again. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Casey had liberated the M-16 from the fallen guard and was now racing in her direction along side the one remaining guard. Had they seen what Diana had done? If not, they would certainly know once they reached the doorway.

It took another ten seconds for Sarah to reach the open doorway. Inside, the overhead lights were blazing. Diana was standing to the right of the entrance with a clipboard in her hands. As Sarah ground to a halt breathing hard, Diana flipped to another page and quickly ran her finger down the page. Diana was still flipping pages as Casey and the guard caught up.

"Yes," exclaimed Diana, her finger coming to rest on a specific line on the page.

But before she could speak further, a much larger, much closer explosion shook the room. Sarah, who was still standing just inside the door, looked back and saw a cloud of dust roiling up the corridor. Through gaps in the billowing mass she could see the large hole ripped through the wall separating the corridor from the central shaft.

Diana must have seen it, too, as she thrust the clipboard into Sarah's hands. "Sarah, the ring is in aisle 7, rack 4, box 14. Go get it while I deal with whatever is coming."

Before Sarah could say anything, Diana ran back out into the corridor.

"Walker, get the ring," growled Casey, as he grabbed the guard's arm and turned to follow Diana.

Sarah stared at Casey's broad back for a moment as he raced out. Then she turned and surveyed the room. It was large and jammed with racks full of boxes. Who knew what treasures were hidden in this one place let alone the whole facility. But at the moment she had to focus on just one thing – the ring. Once they had it in their possession, they could focus on getting away, until then the others would be trapped in a deadly delaying action.

As gunfire started echoing down the corridor, Sarah's right hand automatically went to her hip, where her gun would normally be in any potential combat situation. But her hand came up empty; her gun was sitting a locked box back at the first checkpoint along with her phone and the radio.

And as thoughts of her cell phone raced through her head, her mind automatically jumped to thoughts of Chuck. Whatever was going on, the people attacking the depository had to have come from the outside - straight passed where Chuck had been positioned. Was he safe? Had he come in the line of fire of whoever was attacking? Had he been captured or worse? Had Lana been able to use her magical abilities to protect him? Whoever was attacking had obviously gotten past her.

Sarah tried to force thoughts of Chuck from her mind as she started to move back into the stacks. She knew Chuck had feelings for her, but she had never felt the same way about him. But now, suddenly she was less certain. The day had already been the weirdest in her life. First, there was Lana, who was super-rich, had magical abilities, and was simply beautiful. Then there was Diana. She was more beautiful than seemed humanly possible and now apparently had some kind of superpowers, too. And for the first time ever, Sarah had felt jealous when Chuck had looked at another woman. And being jealous must mean she had some kind of special feelings for him. If she was going to have feelings for him, why did they have to start in the middle of a life-or-death situation?

Sarah viciously shook her head. She didn't have time for thoughts like this right now. She had to focus on the mission. She forced her eyes up to the top of the rows of shelves. This was a U.S. government facility. Doubtlessly, everything would be efficiently organized and labeled.

Quickly, Sarah deciphered the numbering scheme and began counting rows, as she moved deeper into the room. Finding row 7, she took a moment to look left and right before moving to her right. Counting racks, she found the one she was looking for and turned to the boxes. The rack was filled with standard legal boxes. She started inspecting the labels starting at the top and was almost to the bottom before she found the one she was looking for. And by then she could tell the gunfire was getting a lot closer to the entrance to this room. She had to hurry.

Dragging the heavy box from its place on the shelf, Sarah lowered it to the floor and ripped off the lid. The box was jammed full of standard plastic evidence bags like the ones used in police departments across the country. But her vision was immediately drawn to a larger bag buried under a pile of near paper-thin bags. This bag contained something about as large as a family-sized can of Campbell's Tomato soup. However unlike the famous red and white can, this object was a dark metallic green.

She heard Casey shout from the room's entrance as she pulled the surprisingly heavy bag from the pile. She simply stared at it for a moment and then heard more gunfire from what sounded like the room's entrance. She had to hurry. Almost of their own volition, Sarah's hands ripped open the bag and pulled out the object. It wasn't truly cylindrical as one side had a large flat spot that began to glow brightly as her hand came into physical contact. And right in the center of the glowing surface was the ring. It, too, was fabricated from some matching green metal. At the moment the flat face of the ring appeared to be stuck to the surface of the larger device.

Sarah gave the ring a slight tug and it easily popped free. Turning it slightly, she saw the upper surface did indeed display the figure Diana had shown her back at the Zebra when they had first met less than ten hours earlier – a central circle with short parallel lines tangent to the upper and lower edges of the circle.

Suddenly, over the sounds of the ongoing battle in the distance, Sarah heard a small voice in her head. It sounded just like Obi-wan in the first Star Wars movie when Luke was in the small fighter racing down the canyon in the Death Star and Obi-wan said, 'Use the force, Luke.' However what the voice in her head said was, 'Put on the ring, Sarah.'

Sarah stared at the ring for a moment; she could feel the power and the potential radiating from it. It scared her a little, but the voice in her head sounded so calm and assuring. She hesitated for only a couple of seconds and then taking a deep breath, she slid the bulky ring onto the middle finger of her right hand.

Instantly the dark crest on the ring began to glow a bright, bright green and a bolt of power raced from her finger, up her hand and then her arm until it seemed to spread to every cell of her body. It felt like she was suddenly on fire as she collapsed to the floor. Her limbs twitched sporadically, as her mind went elsewhere.

Part 3

Casey followed the tall, lithe Lieutenant back out into the hallway wishing he had taken time to search the fallen guard for spare ammo clips. Whatever was going on, he felt certain it was going to end in a firefight. As he ran he checked to be sure the gun's selector switch was set to single fire rather than burst mode, he didn't want to waste most of his clip in the opening seconds.

Casey dove to the floor as the first figure emerged from the still billowing cloud of smoke and dust. The man had been dressed all in black, but was now mostly covered in a layer of light gray. Casey saw he was wearing a repelling rig over a standard set of combat gear and he was carrying an M-16 similar to his own. Casey found himself wishing he, too, was wearing a set of body armor rather than his current suit and tie.

Diana was much closer to the man and she continued to race forward. Casey tried to will Diana to get out of his line of fire as he saw the other man raise his gun in her direction. Almost immediately Casey saw the bright yellow muzzle flash of the other man's gun.

Casey expected Diana to stumble and fall, but instead he saw her right arm whip forward in an impossibly fast arc. Then with a sharp 'ching' and a small spark, he saw the bullet hit her heavy bracelet and then go spinning harmlessly off to the side before impacting the corridor's wall.

Diana continued to race forward. The man got off a second shot, which she again somehow managed to deflect, before she was on him. Then with a powerful blow from her left hand, she sent him flying at least twenty-five feet. When he hit the floor he was just a crumpled heap.

But by now three more opponents had appeared from the gaping hole in the wall of the corridor. Diana danced among them trading blows and still deflecting shots, as Casey stared down the sights of his gun. It was impossible to get a clear shot without risking hitting the woman.

Fucking hell, thought Casey, as he scrambled to his feet. It looked like they were going to have to do this up close and personal.

Casey ran forward as the three opponents focused their attention on Diana. Just as he reached them, she delivered a knockout blow to one of the men. Casey quickly slammed the butt of his rifle into the head of the second man. And at almost the same instant Diana spun into a fast round-house kick which caught the last man under the chin and lofted him nearly eight feet into the air before he did a mid-air flip and crashed to the ground with a satisfyingly loud 'crunch'.

For a moment there was silence in the corridor, as someone had thankfully silenced the annoying alarms. Casey glanced over at Diana who was standing beside him with her arms still raised in a fighting stance. She was breathing slowly and deeply, as though to replenish her body with oxygen for whatever was going to come next, but she didn't look the slightest bit winded or out of breath.

"Nice trick with the bracelets," Casey remarked with more than a hint of respect in his tone. He might be gruff towards Chuck and sometimes even Sarah when they didn't live up to his nearly impossible standards. But this Diana had to be one of the best unarmed fighters he had ever seen and he wasn't beyond bestowing a complement when it was deserved.

He saw the woman's eyes flick in his direction and she gave a quick nod of acknowledgement. But before she could say anything, both of their attentions were drawn to the large hole in the corridor wall about forty feet beyond their current position.

Two large metallic columns extended in through the opening and grabbed the edges of the opening. They jerked backwards and with a loud screech of tearing rebar the eight foot opening suddenly was closer to twelve. Again the columns reached in and again tore at the opening.

Diana grabbed Casey's arm. "I don't know what is getting ready to come through there, but I don't think we better hang around to find out. Come on, let's get back to Sarah and see if she has found what we came for so we can get out of here."

Casey nodded in agreement and followed her back down the corridor at almost a dead run. Glancing back over his shoulder, he saw a large silver sphere forcing its way through the opening. It struggled for a moment and then it was through. Quickly, it rose up on five spidery legs although it appeared to have to almost crouch down to fit below the eighteen foot ceiling that had seemed impossibly spacious before. Like something from Casey's worst nightmare, he watched it begin to move after them in a slow deliberate manner.

A group of men had followed the giant spider machine through the opening in the wall and were now sporadically firing in their direction. Casey had almost reached the entrance to the room containing the ring when he spotted the remaining guard who had been with them. The man was obviously in the 'rent-a-cop' category, who had never been in a firefight in his life. Now, he was just huddled against the wall of the corridor with his hands covering his head and his rifle lying forgotten at his side.

Quickly, Casey kicked the man's rifle through the wide doorway and then grabbed him by his collar. With a painful jerk, Casey twisted the man around and kicked him into the room.

While Casey was getting the man to safety, Diana had paused between them and the others. She was again using her bracelets to deflect the shots that were coming in their direction.

"Clear," shouted Casey, as he dove through the doorway and rolled into a position where he could lay down some covering fire.

Diana slowly backed towards the entrance to the room. Her arms still seemed to move at an impossibly fast pace as she continued to deflect the almost constant stream of projectiles.

Then she abruptly dove through the opening barely a split second before a brilliant white shaft of light blazed down the corridor spearing straight through the center of the spot where she had just been standing.

"That machine has some kind of powerful laser weapon," she said to John as she rolled to her feet. "We need to move back deeper into the room and find Sarah. If they have come for the ring, they can't risk using that powerful weapon in here."

She grabbed the still balled-up guard and seemed to hoist him aloft with just one hand as she ran back into the stacks.

Casey followed her. He backed up slowly being careful to keep his gun trained on the room's entrance. He had known retreating into this room with only one exit had been a very bad idea, but he couldn't just leave Walker to her fate. He contemplated surrendering for a moment, but realized with the amount of force their opponents were bringing to bear, they probably didn't care about prisoners, particularly once they had achieved their prize. Oh, if they had some useful information they might be able to strike some kind of a bargain with the others, but they knew nothing about the ring beyond its mere existence.

A whispered 'what the hell?' came from Diana somewhere behind him. Quickly, Casey speeded up until he reached the cross aisle where Diana stood. Glancing passed her, he saw Sarah on the floor just starting to sit up and slowly shaking her head as though she didn't know where she was.

Then he realized what had caused Diana's remark. Sarah had been wearing a gray pantsuit with a white blouse to look all professional to simplify things while gaining entry to this facility in just the same way he was wearing a suit and tie. But now the business attire was suddenly gone and she was wearing a tight, form-fitting black and green costume and a matching green mask covered the top half of her face.

"Walker?" Casey spluttered.

Part 4

They were all crowded in the back of the van as Oliver worked to assemble the bombs they would use in hopes of incapacitating the war-bots. Chuck had been looking in Lana's direction when she seemed to disappear. It only lasted a moment and for a second Chuck thought his eyes were playing tricks on him in the subdued lighting of the van's interior.

"We have bigger problems than we thought," said Lana only seconds later making Chuck think maybe his eyes weren't playing games.

Oliver spared her only a quick glance before turning his eyes back to the remote control detonators he was busily assembling. He only had enough parts and C4 explosives to make nine of the devices which would only take out, at most, three of the dozen big machines. In the past he had mostly used the C4 for explosive tipped arrows, so he had never needed large quantities. But after tonight, he was definitely going to have to change the mix of materials he stocked in his jets for use in field situations like this.

"What?" was Oliver's terse reply.

"I just took a quick run around the facility. I counted eight more of the machines on the far side of the depository which weren't visible from here. And those machines have burned a hole through the outer wall of the building. Several were frozen in the act of moving inside and there could be even more already inside.

"I think we are going to have to change our plans. The number one priority is to get Sarah, Diana, and Casey out of the building. Hopefully with the ring, but saving their lives is more important than some mysterious ring. And there are also guards and others in the building to consider, too. We need to get to work evacuating the building.

"How soon are your devices going to be ready?" asked Lana in conclusion.

"Now," responded Oliver. The nine devices were laid out in a row on the workbench.

"Lana, label these one through nine," he continued while gesturing his hand from left to right before handing her a felt tip pen. Then he grabbed a controller from one of the bags stowed under the bench. Quickly, he punched a string of numbers into its keypad.

It took him less than thirty seconds to explain how to use the remote control as Lana stuffed the small bombs into the satchel slung over her shoulder.

When everything was stowed, Lana glanced over at Bart. "Ready for a little action, Bart?"

Bart grinned. "I'm always up for a little action and how often is it in a place like Fort Knox?"

"Well, just see if you can keep up," responded Lana.

"Hey, I'm the fastest man alive. Don't worry about me keeping up. Worry about yourself."

And as abrupt as that, Lana and Bart vanished. Chuck stared at the spot where they had been standing just a second earlier. There were definitely gaps in the knowledge in the Intersect you could drive a truck through, he thought.

Lana shifted into Prometheus Time and then shot Bart a quick glance as she exited the back of the van. The young man was right behind her.

"Bart, we might as well use the path they created through the minefield. Then let's swing around the far side of the building and use the new doorway they have also created. If we follow their trail, they may lead us straight to the others."

Bart seemed to be effortlessly moving along beside her.

"Okay," he answered with a quick nod. Then to fill the time it would take to cross the intervening distance, he asked. "So, Chuck was telling me a little about Diana. Is she really the hottest babe on the planet?"

Lana almost rolled her eyes. Bart's whole existence seemed to be focused on exactly two things – the thrill of speed and hitting on women. She had been with Clark when she had first met Bart, but that hadn't stopped him from hitting on her. And she knew he had made a try at Chloe. She didn't think he had ever met Lois, but doubtlessly when that day came he would hit on her, too.

And like with all of them, she didn't think he stood a chance with Diana, either. Oh, of all of them Diana looked the closest to his age, but that was about the only thing they had in common. Diana stood at least five or six inches taller than Bart. And in the looks department on a true bell curve Diana would the only '10' in the world while Bart was, at best, a '6'. And Diana just projected this image of maturity that was totally at odds with Bart's still mostly juvenile behavior.

"Ah," began Lana trying to figure out how best to put it. "Yes, I would say there is a good chance Diana is the most beautiful woman on the planet. But I wouldn't be getting my hopes up, if I were you."

"What do you mean?" asked Bart as he put on a small burst of speed and pulled ahead of Lana. "Is she already seeing someone?"

"I really don't know, I only met her today and we haven't spent any time talking about our personal lives. No, it's just like . . . well . . . she IS the most beautiful woman on the planet."

They had just rounded the far side of the large granite building and the raw opening in its outer wall was easily visible. Lana now only counted six of the giant spider machines so at least four and possibly more were somewhere inside.

"Can we just table this conversation for the moment and focus on the mission," Lana said.

Bart just mutely nodded. They were just passing under one of the giant spiders which was frozen in place by their great speed. And up close, they seemed even scarier than they had been from a distance. The central sphere seemed to loom over them even though the machine was so tall the lower surface was well over their heads. And now he could see the sharp, serrated edges to the lower segments of its legs. Doubtlessly, they were there for some mundane purpose like allowing the machine to climb over rough terrain, but the serrated edges looked equally adept at ripping apart a human body. A shudder ran through him as he imagined having to go up against one of these spiders without his superspeed.

A group of men in black combat gear had set up a perimeter around the large hole cut into the outer wall. Lana and Bart wove between the men and proceeded inside without even slowing. Less than twenty-five feet inside the outer wall they found another even more substantial inner wall. Where the outer wall was mainly a one foot thick granite façade, the inner wall was closer to four feet thick. Where the giant spider machines had used their laser weapons to burn their way through, they could see the melted ends of eight layers of rebar. Lana suspected it had taken the machines a lot longer to get through the inner wall than the outer wall, but concrete and soft steel rebar were no match for megawatt powered lasers.

Beyond the inner wall was some unexpectedly mundane looking office space, at least before the spiders had rampaged through. Following the path of destruction, they reached the central core of the building where the stairs and elevators led to the lower levels.

They had passed one of the giant spiders near the inner wall and now they found a second one frozen in the process of entering the main central shaft. Lana ducked between the machine's legs and then paused to look over the edge.

Three more of the giant machines were visible below. Another large hole had been torn in the side of the shaft roughly sixty feet below and one of the machines was clambering through. Additionally, at least a dozen men were frozen in the process of repelling down to the lower opening.

Lana clambered up onto the side of the opening as she glanced over to Bart who had been standing next to her also looking down. "I think that's where we are going to find the others."

"What are you doing?" asked Bart as he watched Lana balance precariously on the edge of the opening.

"I'm going to jump down to the lower opening," she answered.

Bart glanced down again. It was sixty feet down to the other opening and if she missed, it was at least another fifty feet to the bottom of the shaft.

"I can't make that jump," Bart declared almost sheepishly.

"So speed isn't everything," Lana said, enjoying the opportunity to deflate, even a little, Bart's always excessive ego.

Then she took a little pity on him. "Bart, see if you can find some stairs leading down to that level. Jumping down is going to be a lot easier than jumping back up – particularly since we will have to get Diana, Sarah, and Casey back up here somehow, too. But don't take any stupid chances, I think I am going to need your help before this is through."

Bart nodded to her with the most serious expression she thought she had ever seen on his face. Then he raced away at a pace far beyond what she could possibly achieve with her nanosuit.

Doubtlessly, he was trying to find some alternate route which would beat her down there. And if he did, it was all well and good. He might see this as a competition, but she just wanted to save the others. And if Bart was ultimately responsible, that was okay with her.

Forcing thoughts of Bart from her mind, Lana took a deep breath and leaped hard out into the void. The other opening the spiders had made was in the right wall sixty feet below, but also almost eighty feet to her side. She quickly sailed across the void and then discovered she had almost misjudged the distance. She would have miss the opening completely and hit the wall a good six or seven feet lower, if not for the spider frozen in the act of working its way through the opening. As it was, she just managed to snag its outer most leg with the fingers of her left hand. She was left dangling for a moment before she could get a grip with her right hand. Then she quickly climbed the leg far enough to where she could swing over the edge of the opening and drop lightly to the floor of the corridor beyond.

Glancing around, Lana surveyed the situation. Another of the spiders was down the corridor to her right. Beyond it, she could see a group of men crouched around a doorway in the corridor's outer wall. Looking in the other direction, she saw the corridor extended another hundred feet before reaching a corner, but there didn't seem to be anything going on that way.

Turning in the direction of the activity, Lana proceeded at a walk instead of a run. While in Prometheus Time it didn't really matter whether she walked or ran and at the moment, she wanted to make sure she didn't miss anything important.

And the first things she saw were several bodies lying near the walls of the corridor. They were dressed in the black outfits of the commandos, but Lana paused to give each of them the once over. She didn't find any bullet wounds, so whoever had taken them out hadn't use a gun, but each of them was surrounded by shell casings so they certainly had been shooting at something or someone before they went down. Hoping it didn't mean any of her associates had been wounded or killed, Lana continued her progress forward.

The second giant spider was about forty feet from the first. As she approached she realized it was crouched down much lower to fit into the corridor than the ones moving around outside. If she incapacitated this one, the other one might have a tough time getting passed it. So when she reached it, she pulled three of the bombs from the satchel. With a moderately hard jump, she was able to stick the bombs near the joint between the second and third segments of the three forwardmost legs. Then she paused to look up at the laser projector protruding from the bottom of the central sphere. Perhaps it was worth expending one more of the bombs to take out the laser. And it wasn't like she was committed to use the bomb right now anyway. She couldn't use Oliver's triggering device until she dropped out of Prometheus Time and she didn't intend to do that until she had reached the others. Then if exploding the bombs on this spider didn't turn out to be necessary, she could always retrieve them for later use.

With the four bombs secured to the leading spider machine, Lana proceeded down the corridor to where the group of men in black combat gear were crouched around the entrance to one of the rooms. The previous rooms she had passed had been secured with heavy barred doors, but this doorway was standing completely open. It only took a moment to spot the rectangular assembly of bars lying another thirty feet down the corridor. Inspecting the door frame more closely, she could tell the door had been ripped off by brute force rather than through the use of explosives. She or Clark could do that to the door, but she wondered who had done it here. The spider machines certainly could, but the nearest one hadn't come this far. Interesting.

Guessing her friends were going to be in this room, Lana took a moment to disarm the men in the corridor by bending the barrels of their rifles before proceeding inside. That should buy them a couple of minutes to talk before the 'bad' guys could regroup.

Moving deeper into the room, she found a guard in a U.S. Mint Police uniform huddling in one of the cross-aisles. He didn't appear to be armed, so Lana ignored him for the moment. Two aisles deeper into the room, she found Diana and Casey both staring downward deeper into the aisle with obviously surprised expressions on their faces. Looking passed them; she spotted Sarah sitting on the floor. And what had to be the reason for their expressions was Sarah's outfit. When she had last seen Diana, Sarah, and Casey, the two agents had been wearing business attire and Diana had been in her blue uniform. Now, Sarah was wearing a green and black costume surprisingly similar to the type of costume Oliver sported when he was playing the Green Arrow. Well, except Sarah's seemed perfectly molded to her body whereas Oliver's appeared to have been created without the help of a professional seamstress. And Sarah had a green mask hiding much of the upper half of her face instead of the dark glasses Oliver wore.

Since none of them appeared to be injured, Lana decided to go for a moment of levity as she dropped out of Prometheus Time.

"Boy, I leave you guys alone for a few minutes and look at the mess you have gotten yourselves into."

Casey, who had been staring at Sarah's unexpected apparel, almost jumped out of his skin at the sudden appearance by Lana. He always thought he had nerves of steel, but the last few minutes had been utterly insane.

"What's the situation outside?" asked Diana getting right down to business.

"I disarmed the men just outside the entrance to this room," began Lana. Then she paused to push the first four buttons in sequence on the remote control in her hand. As soon as the four sharp 'booms' faded, she continued, "And that should have disabled the closest of the spider creatures. Ah, you have seen the spider machines, right?"

Casey and Diana both nodded.

"There are at least twenty more of those giant machines, some of them inside, but most of them outside the building. We only have enough explosives to disable one or maybe two more of the machines. And there are roughly thirty commando types scattered around. I think that about sums things up on the outside. What's been happening here?" Lana concluded with a pointed glance towards Sarah.

"Casey and I just got back here, too," said Diana. Then looking at Sarah, she added. "You seem to have found the ring."

Sarah had climbed to her feet and now looked down at her right hand. And from the expression in her eyes, it seemed this was the first she had noticed she was wearing green gloves and how the green ring fit snugly over the top of them.

"What happened?" asked Sarah in almost a daze.

Diana was about to reply when she took in the expression on Sarah's face. It looked to her like Sarah was abruptly listening to a voice only she could hear.

Sarah appeared to whisper something so softly Diana could barely hear it even with her near superhuman hearing. And it sounded like, 'Green Lantern Corps, of course'. And those words brought back long ago, almost forgotten memories.

"We have to go," said Sarah in almost a monotone as she made to move passed the others. Then she paused and turned back to pick up with her left hand a green metallic cylinder sitting on the floor next to the discarded cardboard box.

When she made to move passed them again, Diana held up a restraining hand. "Go where, Sarah? What's going on?"

"I have to be ready for their arrival," Sarah answered as she continued to push passed the others.

"Walker, what are you talking about?" growled Casey in his most gruff tone.

That finally seemed to penetrate, as Sarah paused and stared into his eyes. "Casey?" Then her gaze swept to the other two women and then took in their surroundings.

She looked like she was going to say more, but then with a shout a group of the black-garbed commandos came charging into the room. Casey started to turn and raise the M-16 he was still holding at his side when Sarah put a restraining hand on his arm.

"Let me deal with this," Sarah said as she now stepped firmly passed the others.

Raising her ringed hand, she pointed it in the direction of the approaching commandos. Instantly, a giant green fist seemed to materialize in front of her hand. It shot forward and slammed into the men in black. They were thrown across the room, through the gaping doorway, and smashed into the opposite wall of the broad corridor.

"Follow me," Sarah said in a commanding tone.

Casey, who had been nearest the entrance to the aisle and had seen the most of what had just happened, turned a bewildered look in Diana and Lana's direction. Diana just shrugged and indicated they should follow.

Sarah was already moving at a brisk pace towards the room's solitary exit. The others followed behind with Lana pausing just long enough to grab up the Mint police officer in a fireman's carry.

Lana had almost caught up when Sarah stepped out into the corridor. Quickly, Sarah lifted her right hand and pointed it in the direction where Lana knew the second spider machine was located. Almost immediately, Lana saw the corridor light up with a brilliant white flash that had to be the second spider's laser. Wondering why she had let Sarah walk out into the dangerous corridor in real time, Lana shifted to Prometheus Time to try and get the others clear before the powerful laser did irreparable damage.

Racing into the corridor, Lana saw a large translucent green barrier had formed between the others and the giant spider. The powerful laser beam was being harmlessly defused by the green force field.

The green force field seemed to be coming from the ring on Sarah's hand and if it could block lasers, she suddenly understood why LuthorCorp or whomever was trying so hard to obtain it.

Since Sarah seemed to have the situation under control and curious to see what she would do next; Lana dropped back out of Prometheus time.

The second spider war-bot was still firing around the body of the first spider, which was scrabbling ineffectively at the floor with two good legs and three useless stumps.

While still maintaining the protective force barrier, Sarah said, "I've always hated spiders. They should be crushed like the bugs they are."

A giant translucent green flyswatter came roaring out of the front surface of the ring. It passed effortlessly through the force field and then came smashing down on the nearest spider with a resounding 'smack'. The central sphere, which Lana remembered Oliver saying was six inches thick and constructed of composites and titanium, was crushed absolutely flat. Then the giant ethereal flyswatter swung back up and effortlessly did the same thing to the second spider machine. Instantly, the laser beam winked out and the force field faded away.

As Sarah began striding forward, the other three shared a quick 'WTF' glance. Then as they turned back, they saw what looked like the blade from a giant green steam shovel form in front of Sarah and steadily push the remains of the two destroyed machines until they were well beyond the large opening that had been ripped in the interior wall of the corridor.

"That is one impressive ring," muttered Casey as they trailed along in Sarah's wake.

When they caught up to her, Sarah was standing at the opening in the wall with her right hand extending through the opening. A force barrier was again erected in front of them although this time it was stopping sporadic gunfire instead of laser fire.

Casey took in the look of concentration on Sarah's face and then followed her gaze. A giant green hand was holding the central sphere of another of the spiders while a second hand was plucking off its legs. Each leg gave way with a tortured metallic shriek as though the machine was actually in pain. Finally, after all the legs were detached, the first hand released the sphere and it went crashing to the bottom of the deep shaft. Immediately the green hands moved on to the next spider machine.

Not wanting to break her concentration, but needing to know, Casey asked quietly, "Walker, how are you doing that?"

When the final spider in the shaft had been disabled just like its predecessors, Sarah turned her gaze towards Casey. "I just have to think about something hard enough and the ring makes it happen." And then a little of the familiar Sarah returned, as she grinned. "It is kind of fun."

"Can the ring get us over there so we can get out of here?" asked Lana pointing to the other opening in the shaft up at ground level.

"Let me ask," answered Sarah as her gaze seemed to focus into the distance.

"Ask?" echoed three voices almost in unison.

When Sarah's gaze refocused, she responded. "The ring contains something. I don't know how to describe it. It isn't exactly an Artificial Intelligence, or a link to some otherworldly mind, but it can provide answers to some limited questions. And Lana, the answer to your question is yes."

Quickly, the shield that had been between them and the central shaft stretched and morphed until it was a sphere completely enclosing them. Then with their feet resting on a floor that had formed near the lower inner surface, the sphere began to rise. Moving towards the hole in the corridor's inner wall, the sphere, which turned out to be slightly larger than the opening, effortlessly forced its way through and sent another shower of debris raining down to the bottom of the shaft.

Casey had to work hard to suppress the urge to gasp when the sphere cleared the opening and nothing but a thin layer of translucent green separated him from a scary fifty foot drop.

Most of the gunfire had by now stopped pinging off of the surface of the force field, although whether it was due to the opposition running out of ammo or realizing the futility of their actions wasn't immediately clear.

It took less than ten seconds to cross the large shaft, but when they reached the building's main level, Sarah maintained the spherical protection and floated them all the way out of the building.

Once outside, the gunfire started up again, but it was no more effective than the gunfire inside the building. Sarah let the protective bubble float up until they were several hundred feet in the air and had a bird's eye view of all the activity.

"Did you ever stomp on bugs when you were a kid?" asked Casey.

Sarah shot him a grin. "You mean like this?"

A giant boot formed out of the bottom of the green sphere. Quickly it shot down and stamped one of the bugs to dust. Immediately it pulled up and crushed another and another. In twenty seconds all of the remaining giant war-bots had been destroyed.

Then Sarah floated the protective bubble over towards the highway. After passing over the top of Lana and Chuck's rental car and the black van parked behind it, they slowly settled to the ground. Once on the ground, the green sphere faded away.

"I think the depository's security forces with assistance from the army can mop up the remaining commandos," said Sarah.

Part 5

Just as Chuck and Oliver came running out of the back of the van and Lana lowered the security guard she had been carrying to the ground, Sarah appeared to concentrate for a moment and then her black and green costume flowed back into the ring and she was left standing in the pant suit she had been wearing earlier. Getting out of the costume seemed to clear her head. Oh, she could still feel the ring's power gurgling around in the background, but it was much more subdued. But some of the things she had discovered about herself through the ring's power were still clear in her mind.

Chuck ran up and pulled Sarah into his arms. He and Oliver had been watching Fort Knox on the monitors and had seen the green bubble rising into the air from the far side of the building. It had been too dark to see the individuals within the bubble, but they hadn't missed the giant foot descending from it to crush the spider machines. Then they had watched the bubble drift in their direction and settle to the ground behind the van. It had already faded before Chuck could get out of the van, but he had been in time to see Sarah's costume and then watch it morph into her street clothes.

"What just happened? Are you okay?" asked Chuck, the concern and questions dripping from his tone.

Sarah hugged him back. "Something wonderful, I think."

Chuck pulled back until they were at arm's length so he could look into her eyes. Something had definitely changed with her eyes, but he couldn't yet figure out what it was.

He had a thousand questions, but before he could get a single one out, a brilliant green shaft of light came down from the heavens and struck the ground barely sixty feet from where they stood. The intense beam held steady for eight seconds before vanishing. And in the spot where it had struck the ground, two humanoid figures now stood, dressed in black and green costumes like Sarah had just been wearing.

The two stepped closer until they reached a spot where they were better lit by a nearby streetlight. Someone let out a gasp and at first Chuck thought it had been himself, but then he realized it had been Bart, who was suddenly standing with the rest of the group.

And the gasp had been caused by the appearance of the second person in the green and black. The first was a perfectly human looking man with short brown hair and a body Chuck would kill to possess. But the second was clearly an alien and also clearly a female. She had the normal two arms and two legs, but her face seem to be composed of some hard dark brown material that looked more than anything like tree bark.

"Sarah Walker?" asked the male in perfect English.

Disentangling herself from Chuck's grasp, Sarah took a small step forward. "That's me."

The man nodded. "Sarah Walker, you have put on and used one of the rings of power. And more importantly, the ring has accepted you as its wearer. We are here on behalf of the Guardians of the Universe to invite you to join the Green Lantern Corps."

Sarah nodded in turn. She had known this moment was coming since she had first put on the ring and it had delivered its first message into her mind. "I accept."

"Wait a second, Sarah. Accept what? What's going on?" asked Chuck a hint of desperation creeping into his tone. He had the Intersect in his head and should know everything that was going on. Yet at the moment he had absolutely no idea what was happening.

Sarah held up her right hand where the green ring still resided on the middle finger. "This ring we have been searching for is worn by members of the intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps. It's their job to protect the safety of this universe just like it was our job to protect the safety of the United States. The ring is their link to one of the ultimate power sources and grants them almost unbelievable abilities to do good. Well, you saw a small sample of what the ring can do in combination with the right wearer.

"Before I can be a full member of the Green Lantern Corps, I have to go to Oa, the homeworld of the Guardians, to complete my training," Sarah said in conclusion.

To Chuck, it felt almost like he was experiencing a 'flash'. So much new and unexpected knowledge was being dumped on him at once.

"How . . . how long will you be gone?"

Now the second person in the green and black responded. Her English was perfectly understandable, but it still managed to sound like shredding wood. "The training can take anywhere from months to years. And not all candidates survive."

Chuck turned his attention back to Sarah and he could feel tears forming in his eyes. "Don't go. We already make a good team."

Sarah's eyes were also glistening as she shook her head. "I'm sorry, Chuck. I have to. The ring gave me a glimpse of my future and if we are to survive, if the planet Earth is to survive, I have to do this."

Sarah pulled Chuck forward and into a fierce kiss. Since putting on the ring, so much seemed clear about herself that had always been clouded. Breaking the kiss she pulled Chuck's ear close to her mouth. "I do love you. Will you wait for me?" And before he could respond, she pulled his mouth back to hers.

Chuck could hardly believe what was happening. After all the pretend kisses in the last eighteen months to maintain their cover story or work some case, this was definitely the first real kiss Sarah had ever given him. And after one kiss, okay technically two kisses, she was leaving for months or years. Why did his life always turn out like this?

After almost thirty seconds, Sarah pulled away. She wiped at her eyes with her right hand, the left still holding the green metallic cylinder, as she stepped towards the waiting pair in the green and black costumes. She was half way to them when she paused and looked towards Lana.

"Lana, will you keep an eye on Chuck and Casey until I get back, please?"

Lana nodded, but it was Diana Prince who answered. "We will all keep an eye on them until you return. And I will get things in motion to be ready for your return."

Sarah stared at her uncomprehendingly for a moment and then it was like a light bulb went off, or more likely it was some internal message she received through the ring. "You've had dealings with the Green Lanterns before," Sarah stated with certainty.

Diana smiled. "A very long time ago, I worked briefly with Alan Scott, another wearer of the ring."

Chuck felt more lost than ever. Why hadn't the Intersect ever prepared him for any of this? The world seemed suddenly to be overrun with metahumans, magic, rings of power, aliens, and so much more.

Sarah stepped over to the two visitors. She turned and looked back at people standing grouped around Chuck. Some like Casey she had known for years. However most of them she had only met today and with several of them she didn't even know their names. But she knew this group of people and others who weren't yet present would share a magnificent destiny. That thought was going to have to get her through the lonely months ahead.

She raised her right hand and the green and black costume once more flowed across her body.

"I'm ready," she said in what felt like a surprisingly calm voice.

The three costumed figures all raised their right hands above their heads. Instantly, the brilliant green shaft of light descended again. It blazed for a few seconds and then when it faded, they were gone.

For a moment the group stared at the empty spot. Finally, Chuck's voice broke the silence. "Why did she have to go?"

Diana stepped over and put an arm around the shoulder of the thirtyish looking man. She might look a perpetual seventeen, but she had seen and done a lot in her actual thousands of years of life. "Chuck, let me tell you what I know about the Green Lanterns, maybe it will help."

As Diana led him slightly away from the others, Lana turned her gaze back towards Fort Knox. The area was rapidly filling with more emergency vehicles with flashing lights than she could count. And she thought she could even hear the rumble of approaching tanks in the distance. When she had first gone down into the building to look for the others, she had had no idea how she was going to get them out or how they were going to stop the horde of war-bots. But never in her wildest dreams had she expected it to play out the way it had.

"Quite the day," commented Casey, as he stepped up beside Lana.

She glanced over at the older man. "Oh, you wouldn't believe my life. I have had more bizarre days like this than I can count."

After a lengthy pause, Casey continued. "So, will you be coming back to the BuyMore?"

"Would you be okay with that? I didn't think you trusted me."

"Well, after today's events I think I can trust you, at least in regards to Chuck's safety. But I still think you have another agenda."

Lana smiled. "We all have our secret agendas."

End of Chapter 4

Author's Note

Wow. I wrote most of this chapter in the last two days. The words seemed to flow almost as fast as I could type. A little more action and a little less character development than usual, but that's what I was in the mood to write.

Have a great day,

Duane


	5. Chapter 5

4/30/2010

Chuck versus LuthorCorp

Chapter 5

Part 1

"General, about last night's events at Fort Knox," began Diana before she was abruptly cut off.

"Lieutenant, what the hell happened? It was supposed to be a simple trip to retrieve an artifact. It was not supposed to turn into World War 3. Now, it is going to take hundreds of millions of dollars to restore the facility and tie up at least a regiment of soldiers for months on guard duty until the repairs are complete. And that doesn't even address the destruction of two dozen top secret prototype war-bots I hadn't even HEARD OF until now. And to top it all off, why are you people only reporting in now, almost twelve hours after the fact?"

Casey watched the young Lieutenant calmly stand there and listen to the General's tirade. When Diana had volunteered to brief the General, he had gladly acquiesced. He had had enough dealings with Beckman to know how she was going to react to this apparent fiasco. Millions of dollars in damages and the ring was gone and along with it, Sarah. No, he definitely didn't want to be the one at the center of Beckman's attention at the moment.

But it didn't seem to bother Diana. Actually, nothing seemed to faze her, thought Casey. Whether it was bad guys shooting at her or generals screaming at her; nothing seemed to shake the young woman's self confidence.

Even after knowing her for almost a day, she still struck him as an impossibly young seventeen every time he looked at her. But she had to be somewhere in her twenties based on her rank and poise. Was her youthful appearance part of her metahuman abilities in the same way as her strength and bullet-deflecting abilities were?

Metahumans – Casey had never heard of the term until yesterday but had heard faint rumblings within the intelligence community of people with unique abilities for years. However, Craig Portman, his first supervisor after he transferred over to the world of black ops, had told him that repeating any of the stories he heard or following up any of those stories would most definitely be a career limiting activity. He had taken the advice to heart and look where it had gotten him. He was now at the center of more metahuman activity than he had ever imagined.

"General," began Diana again. "I felt it was prudent to wait to report in until we got back here and could ensure we were on a secure communication link. We didn't leave Fort Knox until I was certain all the hostile activity had been mopped up and the Army's security forces were firmly in place. And at that point nothing seemed so urgent that it couldn't wait until we got back here. Plus I didn't want to risk using the local communication facilities in case this conversation drifted into areas where the Army didn't have a 'need to know'. It is enough that they believe someone tried to break into Fort Knox using prototype weapons. They didn't need to know the full truth."

Beckman's image on the video link appeared to calm a little. "Fine. What is the full truth?"

Diana shook her head. "I'm sorry, General. I don't believe you have a 'need to know' either. This has become a metahuman affair and falls under the purview of my department."

"Don't have a need to know?" Beckman responded at almost a shout. "You were on temporary assignment to my command, LIEUTENANT. I decide who has the need to know."

Diana seemed to stand even straighter as she slowly shook her head. "General Beckman, I hereby officially invoke Presidential Protocol 118B."

"What the hell is Presidential Protocol 118B?" asked Beckman, as she pulled her keyboard forward and started typing.

"General, you are not going to find any electronic records of this protocol. Its very existence has always been deemed too secret to entrust to any automated system. You will have to go over to the White House and review it in person. Ask for Richard O'Day, the second assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Records and Archives. I will let him know to expect you."

Beckman didn't immediately respond, but continued to type and look towards her computer monitor for almost a minute. Finally, she turned her attention back towards the view screen.

"Fine, Lieutenant. I will go over the White House and look at this document, but first I am going to call your supervisor, a Major Trevor, I believe."

"You can do that if you feel you must, General, but it wouldn't do you any good. Major Trevor is not cognizant of this Presidential Protocol either."

Beckman stared silently at Diana for a full thirty seconds. "Lieutenant, exactly who are you?"

"I'm sorry General, but that information also falls under Presidential Protocol 118B. Let's just say I have a personal understanding with the current President and his predecessors."

Diana paused for a moment before continuing. "Now, if we could get back to the situation at hand. We still don't know who attacked Fort Knox last night. The spider robots used in the attack were designed by Queen Industries, but I talked with Oliver Queen last night and he says they hadn't yet gone passed the design stage. So someone else must have gotten the plans and done the actual construction. Only a few companies have the technology to fabricate some of the components so either they were directly involved or will potentially point us in the correct direction. Queen promised he would pursue this on the civilian side, but I would appreciate it if your people could follow it up on the military side."

"How do you know you can trust Queen?" asked Beckman. "If his company did the design work, they are the most likely candidates to have created the weapons."

"General, I talked to him face-to-face. I have yet to meet anyone who can lie to my face without my knowing it." Diana didn't feel it was necessary to explain that she had been touching Oliver at the time with one end of the lasso forged by Hephaestus, which had been discretely hidden in her hand. "Oliver Queen definitely has no knowledge of who constructed the spider bots. It is possible others at his company could be behind it without his knowledge, but he will look into it."

"Very well, Lieutenant, I will get my people working on it," said Beckman. She didn't bother to hide her annoyance at being 'told' what to do by a mere Lieutenant. "Now, getting back to the Intersect, I can see Major Casey. And Bartowski is lurking in the background, but where is Agent Walker?"

"General, Agent Walker is on a special assignment. It isn't clear how long it will last, but it will be at least several months. I will take over her duties here with the Intersect until a suitable substitute can be found."

"You have reassigned one of my people?" demanded Beckman, her anger surging back into her voice. "I think you have gone too far this time. But I suppose you are just going to point to this mysterious document again."

"Sorry, General. I think once you have seen the document, it will clarify everything. Well, actually to be honest, it won't clarify anything to your satisfaction. But it will clarify my authority in this situation."

Beckman shook her head and then shot a look straight at Casey. "I will speak to you again after I have had a chance to review this Presidential Protocol. Beckman out."

Great, thought Casey. Now I'm going to be under Beckman's microscope. Just great.

Realizing he was going to need something to satisfy the General when she came back and simply needing to better understand the situation himself, Casey turned to Diana. "Diana, would you care to let us in on this Presidential Protocol thing?"

Diana shrugged. "Since we are going to be working together and the General is going to see it anyway, you might as well know. Presidential Protocol 118B simply states all government agencies, both military and civilian, will render me any assistance I request. And this single sheet of paper is signed by every president going back to F.D.R."

"F.D.R.? You mean Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was president, what, sixty-five years ago?" asked Chuck finally rousing from the funk he had been in ever since Sarah had disappeared in the green shaft of light back at Fort Knox.

Diana smiled and her light blue eyes momentarily sparkled like they were filled with diamonds. "Chuck, I'm a little older than I look. The women in my family age very slowly."

Part 2

It was mid-morning and Lana was standing behind the help desk in the BuyMore. After the previous two days where she had been up for over forty hours straight and then only caught a couple of hours of sleep on the flight back from Louisville, she would have appreciated a day off. But with Sarah gone and the people behind the attack on Fort Knox, whoever they were, still on the loose, she felt it was her duty to keep an eye on Chuck for the present. Oh, Casey and Diana were still officially on 'Watch Chuck' duty, but after the firepower their opponents had brought to bear in the last thirty-six hours, a third set of eyes wouldn't hurt. Of course, since their opponents' primary objective of acquiring the ring had been thwarted, they might not be back. But better safe than sorry, as the old saying goes.

Even with mere normal human hearing, Lana still didn't miss the scurrying footsteps of the human-sized rodents known as Jeff and Lester. They had been thankfully loafing in the employee break room up until now, but she had known her luck wouldn't last forever.

Hoping they were on some 'mission' that didn't involve her, Lana kept her gaze carefully fixed on the store's front doors praying some customer would walk in needing her help. But she was unlucky on both fronts – no customers needed her help and the Nerd Herd rejects known as Jeff and Lester strode around the desk until they came to a stop directly in front of her. How did two losers like these keep their jobs? Was good help that hard to find?

"Jeff, Lester," began Lana, knowing there would be no putting them off and deciding it was best to take the initiative. "What can I do for you?"

"Jeff and I are having a small disagreement and we're hoping you could give us the woman's perspective on the topic," answered Lester with a hint of a quiver in his voice, as though merely being in Lana's presence was still intimidating.

Lana simply raised an eyebrow for him to go on.

"We're trying to decide which mutant spider movie is the scariest. Jeff says it's the 1950's era, 'Tarantula' with the really giant spider that is mostly left to your imagination. I say it is 'Eight Legged Freaks'. The spiders weren't as large but they were in almost every scene in the second half of the movie and they had so many different types of spiders with so many different ways of killing people."

Lana almost smiled. Only nerds would start a conversation with a girl by talking about mutant spider movies. And all those spiders were just make-believe. How would this pair have reacted if they had come up against the giant robot spiders from the previous night? Probably run away screaming like a couple of little girls.

"Well, I'm not sure which was scarier. When I saw 'Tarantula' on Saturday afternoon TV as a kid, it really looked fake. Even that young, I simply knew it was micro-photography blended with live action.

"As for 'Eight Legged Freaks', I remember seeing it in the theater in high school with my boyfriend of the time. Ah, did I mention he was the quarterback on the football team and I was a cheerleader?" Lana threw in to remind Jeff and Lester she was out of their league. "Anyway, it was fun to see so many spiders on the screen, but it seemed more campy than scary. So neither of them struck me as truly scary, but if you want me to pick which one I enjoyed more, I would have to go with 'Eight Legged Freaks'. I mean it did have a young Scarlett Johansson and Kari Wuhrer was pretty hot as her Mom, the sheriff."

"So you like watching hot women in movies?" asked Lester with the beginnings of a leer.

Lana shrugged. "Sure. If you are going to sit through a movie, why not have attractive actors to look at?"

"How about TV, who is your favorite character?" asked Lester, almost surprised Lana was still speaking to him after their initial encounter the day before.

Since Lester had been doing all the talking so far, Lana glanced over at Jeff. He was staring off into the distance as though he was barely paying any attention to the conversation. And from what she had seen and heard from others, this seemed to be typical behavior for the pair.

Still, if she had to talk to Lester, TV and movies seemed safer than a lot of other topics. So she pondered Lester's question for a moment before answering. Her choice needed to be somewhat geeky to remain in character for her role as a Nerd Herder. And why not pick the person most similar to the cover story she had been using with Chuck and Casey?

"Oh, I think I would say Willow from Buffy," answered Lana.

"Wow, so you have a thing for hot lesbian chicks? Me, too," exclaimed Lester.

Lana almost snickered. She had dated the high school quarterback. She had been married to one of the most powerful industrialists in the country. Her last boyfriend had been the strongest, fastest man on the planet. She had never in her life been seriously attracted to a girl. Although, if there was one woman she could see herself being attracted to, it was Diana. Damn, she was so beautiful even Lana had to admit to an attraction.

But rather than snickering at Lester's comment, Lana shook her head. "Please keep your perverted thoughts to yourself, Mister Patel. No, what I found intriguing about Willow was the witchcraft. Who wouldn't want to be able to do magic. And not sleight-of-hand tricks, but true magic."

But Lester had a one tracked mind and it was not thinking about witchcraft. "So, have you ever kissed another girl?"

Lana couldn't stop her thoughts from drifting back to Tina Greer and Abigail 'Scabby Abby' Pine, but both those times the kiss had been forced on her. However, there had been that one time when she and Chloe had gotten drunk in the dorm room they briefly shared at college.

Suddenly, Lana felt her cheeks redden. She shouldn't let an idiot like Lester get under her skin like this.

"Hmm, maybe," Lana answered. Perhaps it would be better if Lester fixated on her kissing another girl rather than having him make endless passes at her. And perhaps she could set some Herculean task to delay him for awhile. "Would you like to watch me kiss another girl?"

As Lester nearly drooled down the front of his shirt, Lana realized even Jeff's attention was now focused on her.

"Tell you what. Since we seem to be on a TV and movie theme at the moment, remember the old movie 'Real Genius'?" When both guys nodded, Lana continued. "Remember the scene where the satellite beam hits the house filled with popcorn and the popcorn expands until it ruptures the ceiling and walls? Well, I think if you can duplicate the scene using Big Mike's office, I might let you watch me kiss another girl. But no powerful microwave death-rays, I don't want anyone getting accidentally hurt or killed."

Lana almost laughed as Lester and Jeff's heads nodded so fast they looked like those little 'bobble-head' statues attached to the dash of a car doing ninety miles an hour over the worst pothole-ridden road in Michigan. And she could almost see the gears and wheels spinning in Lester's mind. Yes, this little 'project' would keep the two of them distracted and out of her hair for days.

Part 3

Chuck entered the front door of the BuyMore just in time to see Jeff and Lester heading from the help desk towards the back of the store. From the way Lester was almost bouncing on his toes, it was obvious there was some new scheme afoot.

"What's up with them?" asked Chuck, as he reached the help desk where Lana was staring at the retreating forms of Lester and Jeff, who were just disappearing down the washer/dryer aisle. "I haven't seen Lester so animated since the time he and Jeff were planning to break into the store to steal what they thought was a new gaming machine, but was really a secret high-tech military computer."

Lana turned and looked at Chuck. This was the most he had spoken to her since Sarah left and it certainly was the most normal he had sounded.

"Oh, I was just talking with them when a little idea popped into my head to keep them occupied for awhile and out of my way."

"Care to tell me about it?" asked Chuck.

"Nah, it will be more fun if it is a surprise."

"And what did you give them as an incentive? I know those two and they don't do anything without the potential of some reward."

Lana looked up at Chuck. No reason not to jerk his chain a little, too. And it might help to distract him from thoughts of Sarah for a moment. Besides, she was curious to see his reaction.

"Well," began Lana feigning a blush, although it didn't take any real effort; did she really want to do this, too? "I sort of told them if they pulled off this project, they might get to . . . ah . . . watch me kiss another girl."

Lana watched as Chuck's mouth actually dropped open. He definitely wasn't thinking of Sarah, unless, of course, he was thinking of her kissing Sarah. Hmm, she hadn't even thought of Sarah when she had made the remark to Jeff and Lester. Maybe it was too bad Sarah was going to be gone for months. Damn, now that silly remark was even starting to mess with her head.

Chuck closed his mouth and abruptly grinned. "She has that affect on you, too? When she walked into the store yesterday with Sarah, it was like seeing a mythical goddess come to life. Maybe Venus or Helen of Troy. Since then I haven't seen a single guy who hasn't been at least briefly overwhelmed by her presence. Even Oliver Queen seemed stunned by her and with his looks, wealth, and power he must have had a lot of gorgeous girlfriends. So, it is interesting to learn she has a similar impact on women."

Chuck paused and leaned forward. "If it happens, if you make it happen, I wouldn't mind watching, too," he whispered.

Damn, this whole little diversion was starting to take on a life of its own, thought Lana. At this rate she was going to have to do the kiss in the middle of the BuyMore for a whole store full of guys. Hell, perhaps she should just video it and use it to raise money for charity.

Lana took a half step back and almost without realizing it, picked up a sheaf of papers from the desk and started fanning her face. She was not into girls. She still loved Clark even if they could never be together again. She was here to protect Chuck, nothing more.

She was almost glad to see Morgan walk up to the counter. They hadn't spent much time together yesterday, but anything that would move the conversation away from Diana Prince for awhile seemed like a good thing.

"Hey, Chuck," began Morgan. "What happened to you yesterday? You left early and then when I called you later about doing some 'Medal of Honor', you never answered."

From watching Chuck's face, Lana knew to the millisecond when his thoughts went back to Sarah. And she decided maybe a conversation about Diana was better than Chuck having thoughts about Sarah.

For a second, she thought Chuck's eyes were going to tear up, but then he seemed to get a hold of himself.

"Sarah got a call yesterday afternoon. She has a great aunt who is very sick and has no one to take care of her," Chuck said, using the cover story they had all agreed to. "I had to take her to the airport. Afterwards, well, I just wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone. It looks like Sarah will be gone for at least a couple of months."

Morgan put a companionable arm across his oldest friend's shoulder where he stood leaning against the help desk counter. "Hey, you'll get through this. There is always the phone. You can talk to her every day."

Chuck shook his head. "Unfortunately, her aunt lives deep in the hill country of Kentucky and there isn't cell service. And her aunt doesn't even have phone service. It is a twenty mile drive to the nearest small town with a pay phone. So the calls are going to be sporadic at best and it will always have to be her contacting me."

Chuck still couldn't believe Sarah had simply announced she was going away because of the ring. And after admitting, in almost the same breath that she had feelings for him.

Their whole relationship had been so bizarre and mostly one sided. She could act like the perfect girlfriend when it was necessary for the mission or the cover story. But 'act' had always been the keyword. She could turn it off as easily as turning off a light switch. However it hadn't been the same for him. No, slowly over the months they had been working together, the cover story had stopped being an act on his part. He had wanted her to be his 'real' girlfriend. He had come to love her.

And then she finally admitted having feelings for him bare seconds before she departed to some distant planet. The geek in him should have been thrilled at the knowledge that there was life and other intelligent civilizations in the universe, but all he felt was this giant hole through his heart. A small part of him almost wished she hadn't said anything before she left, it surely would have made the extended separation easier – particularly if she never came back and he had to get on with his life without her. But the larger part of him was glad she had said what she had said. With the hope the words brought, he would find some way to get through the coming months or even years.

Then his thoughts turned back to Morgan's comment about phone calls. If these aliens had the technology to whisk a person half way across the galaxy or universe or whatever in a beam of light, surely they had the power to grant Sarah leave or vacation or whatever they chose to call it or at least let her make the equivalent of the occasional phone call. If they were that advanced, they must be civilized enough to consider her feelings.

As Chuck drifted back into the funk state he had been trapped in ever since Sarah had departed, Lana stepped forward and put her hand on his. "Hey, you still have the rest of us. We'll help you get through this. It's not like Sarah will be gone forever."

She felt Chuck's hand tense under hers at her last comment. And she knew Chuck realized she had no way of knowing if Sarah would ever return. Diana had told them what she knew about the Green Lanterns, although it wasn't much. The training Sarah faced was challenging and not everyone survived. Usually, Green Lanterns returned to their worlds of origin, but not always and frequently not right away.

Deciding a conversation about Diana was actually better than one about Sarah, Lana said. "So, Chuck, do you think we should let Morgan in on Jeff and Lester's little project?"

Part 4

Casey was just getting ready to head over to the BuyMore when one of the printers 'pinged' and spewed out a handful of pages. He walked over, picked them up, and quickly scanned through them.

"Lieutenant," Casey said, as he walked over to where Diana was working at a computer terminal. "This just came in. A known Fulcrum agent is on a flight inbound from London. It will be landing at LAX in fifty minutes. We have been requested to tail him and determine where he is headed and what he is up to, if possible."

"Okay, I said I would cover Sarah's tasks until a replacement can be sent. I need five minutes to wrap things up. Do you want to go get Chuck, while I finish?"

"I think Bartowski should sit this one out," answered Casey.

Diana looked up from the computer. "I thought he usually went with you in hopes he would 'flash' and provide you with additional data."

"Yeah, but the dossier includes a picture of the Fulcrum agent, so we don't need Bartowski to identify him. And we can tail the agent without his help, too."

"Don't you think it would help Chuck to get out into the field to distract him from the thoughts about Sarah he has been wallowing in ever since she departed?" asked Diana. She didn't really think Chuck was ready to get back into action this soon, but wanted to hear what Casey had to say. Sarah, John, and Chuck had been a team for almost eighteen months, and Sarah's departure had to be affecting John, too.

"No, he's too distracted at the moment and that could be dangerous for him and us," responded Casey. "Bartowski . . . uh, Chuck has never been trained as a field agent. He hasn't been hardened to put his personal situation on hold and focus on the mission. I don't want to jeopardize him by putting him out there when he is even less prepared than usual, particularly for a mission that doesn't absolutely require his special assets. In a few days it will probably be good to start easing him back into field ops, but not today."

"How about you, John? Are you ready to get back into the field? Yesterday was a stressful day and a lot of new things were thrown at you. And Sarah has been your partner for a long time, too."

Casey looked at Diana for a moment. "I'll be fine. I have changed partners a number of times before. And it's not like Sarah was killed in action; that's always hard. She is just gone on another assignment and I can deal with that. I'm more concerned about Chuck. We had achieved a functional equilibrium. I knew Chuck had feelings for Sarah and I'm sure she knew it too. But she had always made it clear she didn't feel the same way about him. And as I said, we had found a way to make that work. But then she had to go and say she had feelings for him just as she was departing. Why did she have to do that? It is just going to tear the kid apart more than necessary."

Diana shrugged. "Maybe she didn't realize she had those feelings until right then."

"What, we've been together for months and at that instant she decides she loves him?"

"It's called an epiphany, John. I have seen it before and they most often hit during moments of maximum stress. Getting the ring and realizing she was about to leave the planet is about as stressful as it can get. And once she realized her true feelings, maybe she needed to say it out loud to help her get through the coming challenges."

Casey nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right." He paused to look directly into Diana's eyes. "You look so young, but you are obviously a lot more than you seem on the surface. What do you truly think? How much is Sarah going to be changed when she gets back after seeing the wonders of the universe and tasting real power?"

Diana closed her eyes for a moment as she pondered Casey's question. That was the real issue – could Sarah handle the great powers she had been given. In her long life she had met many humans and meta-humans who had come into great power and few of them had been able to handle the situation. She wouldn't even have been out in the world of man these past three years if not for the escape of the megalomaniac, Ares, from his millennia long imprisonment on the sacred island of Themyscira. No, most beings, whether a human, a meta-human, or even a god, could not handle the gift of great powers.

"I don't know," answered Diana truthfully. "I have met many powerful beings in my life and most of them couldn't handle their gifts. If Sarah is to come through this and still be the person you remember, the feelings she declared for Chuck may be the deciding factor. They may keep her grounded and help her remember her humanity."

Casey sighed. He hoped Diana was right. Sarah had been a good partner and he didn't want to see anything bad happen to her as a result of putting on the ring. Then he remembered the time and knew they had to be on their way if they were going to reach the airport before the Fulcrum agent had come and gone.

"We should be on our way," said Casey. He headed over to the weapons locker. "We have a pretty good assortment of weapons here. Anything in particular you are comfortable with?"

"John, it is wrong to kill people. I won't use any offensive weapons," stated Diana. The events had happened before she had been created, but she knew her mother regretted killing Thrax, her true son by Ares. And she understood why Zeus had insisted Ares be imprisoned rather than executed, even if his escape might ultimately result in widespread death and despair throughout the world, if she didn't recapture him in time. But a life taken could never be restored.

"It is wrong to kill people."

Part 5

"YOU HAVE KILLED SENTIENT BEINGS. YOU ARE NOT WORTHY TO WEAR THE RING."

Sarah stood in sudden shock at the foot of the raised dais. She had been on the planet Oa for three days and this ceremony was supposed to be a mere formality where the Guardians would confirm her place among the potential Green Lantern trainees and allow her formal training to begin.

The other two trainees, who had also arrived during the past week, had gone through the ceremony before her without a hitch. First had been Tumar Tu from the planet Xudar. He had a humanoid body with the standard two arms and two legs, but his head was more akin to that of a hawk than a human. His head was covered in pale orange skin with a large darker orange beak and a crest of ebony feathers. He had recited the Green Lantern oath and then Guardian Ranakar, the apparent spokesman of the three Guardians present, had welcomed him into the Corps.

Next up had been Boodika from the planet Bellatrix. She had looked perfectly human in comparison to Tumar Tu, well human in much the same way Diana Prince looked perfectly human. Boodika was tall and slender, but her lithe appearance couldn't hide that she had a warrior's body. No, she was tall and extremely beautiful and would be a spitting image of Diana if Diana added twenty-five more pounds of muscle and, of course, if Diana had vivid purple skin!

Boodika, too, had recited the Green Lantern oath and been welcomed by the Guardians.

Then it had been Sarah's turn. She had stepped forward from where she had been standing by her assigned mentor, Kilowog, who at nearly eight feet tall and over seven hundred pounds had been the largest Green Lantern she had seen in her brief excursions around the Citadel. She had recited the oath and then waited for the Guardian's welcoming remarks. But instead of welcoming her, he had almost shouted this unexpected accusation.

One of the first things Kilowog had done after her arrival on Oa had been to take her to the 'Hall of Great Services' where the Book of Oa was kept. The book, which more closely resembled a giant scroll than the typical books she was familiar with from back home, held the ten laws a Green Lantern was expected to uphold in addition to a summary of the exploits of all the Green Lanterns who had served in the nearly three billion years since the Corps was first formed. Three billion years was a number beyond her ability to fully appreciate, but explained why the scroll was nearly ten feet in diameter and how if fully unspooled would stretch for almost fifteen miles. However the ten laws were so short and concise that even written in all eighteen thousand three hundred twenty-seven languages used in the known universe, they still only filled the first six feet of the fifteen mile length of the scroll.

The first of the ten laws listed the Green Lanterns' primary responsibility to be 'the protection of life and liberty' in their assigned sector. However Sarah had never dreamed the 'protection of life' phrase was meant to be taken literally - as in the protection of all life, or at least all 'sentient life' as the Guardian had just put it.

Sarah had never thought of herself as a killer, although she had killed when it had been necessary. But every time she had killed, it had been to protect herself or others. And every time her opponent had been a threat at some level to the security of the country. No, she didn't see herself as a killer but as a warrior protecting her country in much the same way as a soldier was just doing his duty when he was forced during battle to kill his opposite number. Oh, she might not wear a uniform and she might have a nicer lifestyle than the typical soldier, but she was nonetheless a warrior for her country.

Lifting her head, although it was almost unnecessary, as the Guardian was hardly more than four feet tall and the relatively low dais left his eyes barely higher than hers, Sarah looked the central Guardian directly in the eyes.

"Sir," Sarah began not remembering the correct honorific she was supposed to use in addressing one of the Guardians. And wondering how she was going to convince someone reportedly five billion years old that her actions were justified. "I was a warrior in the service of my country. Yes, I have taken lives, but they were always opponents of my country. I have a hard time believing in the three billion years since the Green Lantern Corps was founded that none of your previous recruits have ever taken a life."

The Guardian, Ranakar, took a half step backwards and his vivid blue skin seemed to lighten several shades, as though no one had spoken back to him in a very long time. He opened his mouth to respond, but then closed it when the Guardian to his left began speaking.

"The human is correct, Ranakar," stated Ganthet. "Surely you remember in the early days of the Corps, when the universe was still young, we accepted trainees from among the warrior classes of several primitive races. We knew they had taken sentient lives, but we still allowed them to enter the program as they were the best candidates available."

Ranakar shook his head. "As you said, the universe was a lot younger than. That is not the case now."

"Guardian Ranakar," interjected Sarah. "Perhaps that is true for many of the civilizations you deal with now, but it is not the case on my planet. We have had a written language for less than ten thousand years, which seems like a very long time to me, but must be an extremely short period by your standards. Hell, by your standards we humans are probably just as primitive as those ancient races Guardian Ganthet mentioned."

"Sector 2814 has always in the past had a Green Lantern without ever needing to use a person from Earth. I see no reason to change this policy, particularly for someone who has taken lives," responded Ranakar.

"Well, I never asked for this gift or the associated responsibility either," answered Sarah getting a little annoyed at being treated almost like an ignorant child. "The ring called to me to put it on. I didn't have any intention of wearing it; we were only trying to protect it from people you would really dislike. I have only taken lives when it was absolutely necessary to protect my country or my friends or myself. These others would take lives for much less honorable reasons like personal gain."

"Ranakar listen to her mind," urged Guardian Ganthet in a quiet voice. "She is telling the truth about the ring calling to her."

Ranakar shook his head. "I don't see where that is germane. The only important issue is that she has taken lives. If we let her become a Green Lantern, we set a dangerous precedent by allowing something that hasn't been permitted in several billion years."

The third Guardian, Appa Ali Apsa, spoke for the first time since the start of the ceremony. "I believe both arguments have merit. The matter should be brought before the complete Guardianship at the next conclave for resolution."

"Agreed," answered Ranakar. "And until such time as the Guardianship makes its ruling, Green Lantern trainee Sarah Walker should surrender her ring."

Guardian Appa Ali Apsa immediately nodded his head in concurrence.

Sarah felt Guardian Ganthet give her a penetrating stare. She knew the Guardians were powerful telepaths from what Kilowog had told her. Therefore she tried to project an image of calm serenity as she felt the light alien touches within her mind.

"Agreed," said Ganthet. "Trainee Walker must surrender the ring until a final decision is made."

With the concurrence of the third Guardian, Ranakar held out his right hand.

Sarah wondered for a moment how she had ended up in this position. The ring had called to her. When she had put it on, it had felt like some part of her that had always been missing was suddenly there. Everything had seemed to make so much sense.

And now it was going to be taken away from her. She was about to be a lowly human again. A human stranded alone, halfway across the universe from her friends and her old life.

But there was nothing she could do but comply. No way after possessing the ring for three days and comprehending maybe one thousandth of its capabilities was she ready to stand up to the combined powers of the Guardians or even the dozens of Green Lanterns currently on Oa or the thousands more scattered across the Universe.

Sarah willed her Green Lantern uniform back into the ring and abruptly found herself standing there in the rumpled business suit she had been wearing back at Fort Knox when all of this had begun.

Then slowly she slid the ring off her finger. Immediately, the ring's voice became weaker and it felt like she had lost her best friend, her only real friend since being swept up in the beam of green light back on Earth.

Carefully, she reached forward and dropped the ring into the upturned palm. Then as the hand closed, she took a step back.

Guardian Ganthet began to speak. He was looking at her, so his words must have been addressed to her, but only through the power of the ring had she understood the disparate languages spoken by all the people here. Now, the guardian's words sounded like simple gibberish.

When he paused, Sarah held up her hands in what she hoped he would understand as a helpless gesture and then pointed at her ear with her right hand.

The guardian nodded and then reached into one of the deep pockets of the maroon and white robe he wore. He pulled out a small silver object and then began to twist and turn it like it was some high-tech Rubik's Cube. After twenty seconds it seemed to have morphed into a completely different object then what he had originally pulled from his pocket.

He tossed it in her direction and Sarah found herself holding a silver egg shaped device.

"Can you understand me now?" asked Ganthet.

Sarah had no idea how the device worked, but the guardian's voice seemed to come from where he was standing and not from the device in her hand.

"Yes, thank you."

"Good. I was just explaining that Kilowog should focus on the classroom aspects of your training until a final decision is made. That way, if the decision is in your favor, you won't have lost too much ground compared to the others."

Sarah nodded. At least they weren't talking about throwing her into a detention cell until the decision was made. However sitting in a classroom had never been her forte. And from what she had seen of other Green Lanterns, it wasn't the strong suit of any of them. No, they were all cut from the same 'superhero action figure' mold.

With a final nod, mostly in the direction of the other trainees, the three Guardians turned and departed from the Hall.

Sarah sighed and for a moment almost wished she was back home, even if it meant wearing the Orange-Orange uniform. She wondered what Chuck and Casey were up to at the moment – probably caught up in the latest Lester & Jeff scheme at the BuyMore. It had only been three days, but the times she had spent hanging around the BuyMore almost felt like another life. How would it seem after she had been here for months?

But there was no going back now. And if the Guardians ruled against her, what would be her fate? Would they send her home or leave her stranded here? And this seemed like a bad place to be stranded. From what she could tell, Oa was a desert world completely uninhabited except for this Citadel. The Citadel was large and sprawled over many square miles, but it was mostly automated. It was home to less than a hundred Guardians, maybe twenty permanent Green Lanterns, another fifty Green Lanterns on temporary assignment or in transit, and twenty to thirty other visitors and invited guests. Oh, there were thousands of criminals being held in the Sciencells, but they were hardly here to keep her company.

As she turned towards where Kilowog stood impassively waiting for her, her eyes soaked up the grandeur of this meeting hall that had been in continuous use since before dinosaurs had roamed the Earth. What would Chuck make of this planet, she found herself wondering for the hundredth time since arriving. He would doubtlessly have geeked out on the seemingly endless supply of high-tech toys available here.

And also for nearly the hundredth time, she wondered why the ring had chosen her. Certainly, Chuck would have been the more logical candidate. He would have loved coming here far more than she did. And he would doubtlessly have understood way more than she the many things that had been described to her. And most importantly, Chuck had never killed anyone, so he could have passed the induction ceremony with flying colors.

But the ring had chosen her, although she had no idea if it was through sheer convenience and necessity, or if the ring saw something in her she didn't yet see in herself.

"Don't look so glum," rumbled Kilowog in his deep gravelly voice. "This is just a momentary hiccup. I have complete confidence the Guardianship will find in your favor."

Then with a roar of laughter, he added. "And if they don't see in you what I see, I will pound some sense into them."

Sarah saw Kilowog's hand descending towards her shoulder to bestow a supportive pat. She braced herself, but without the personal force field protection the ring provided, the casual blow nearly dropped her to her knees.

"Come, the day is still young. Let's hit the books for a few hours and then, ring or no ring, I'll get us into the Hazard Simulation Facility for a little light workout. Have you ever heard of the tentacled monsters from Zerbon? They are an interesting challenge if you forego using the ring."

Sarah tried to imagine going up against a creature the seven hundred pound Green Lantern considered a worthy opponent. God, she hoped the Guardians' decision, good or bad, would come soon.

As she fell in beside her hulking mentor, she found herself wishing for a little of Lana's magical powers. Oh, they probably weren't in the same league as a Green Lantern ring, but they would at least help keep Kilowog from accidentally flattening her.

As they stepped from the Central Meeting Hall and into the blazing sunlight, Sarah's thoughts once more drifted back to Chuck. Why couldn't she have realized her feelings for him sooner? They had wasted so much time pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend when it could have been the real thing.

Sarah sighed, as they headed back to the sector house where she had been staying since her arrival. If only she knew how long she was going to be here, she could count down the days until she could see Chuck again and discuss her feelings for him in greater depth.

Then she smiled. Be honest with yourself, Walker. Talking is not what you fantasize doing with Chuck.

Even as she thought about Chuck, she still faintly heard the whispering voice of the ring, her ring. And once again it reminded her of the great danger facing the planet Earth it foresaw. She had to find a way of regaining the ring. It was all that mattered.

As they reached the sector house and the broad automatic door slid open, Sarah knew she had to convince Kilowog they needed to focus on finding the precedents in the historical records which would support her case. If she didn't win the argument, time spent on training would be a complete waste.

Sarah was always happiest when there was a plan. The plan to recover the ring wasn't yet clear, but at least she had several thoughts to pursue. Therefore she carefully put thoughts of Chuck on hold and turned her full attention to the task at hand.

End of Chapter 5


	6. Chapter 6

May 15, 2010

Chuck versus LuthorCorp

Chapter 6

Part 1___- Ninety-three days after Sarah first put on the Ring_

"Bartowski, go!"

Chuck leapfrogged Gordon to the next closer spot of cover.

"Clear!" declared Chuck, as he trained his weapon on their goal – a side door into what appeared to be an old, long abandoned warehouse.

Gordon raced passed his position. Quickly, she reached the door, gave it a brisk kick, and disappeared through the shattered remains.

And that action seemed to typify his partner's whole attitude and reflected the biggest difference between her and Sarah.

Sarah had been C.I.A. It had all been about secrets: subterfuge, hidden identities, stealth, and sneaking through back doors.

Gordon was F.B.I. It was all about being upfront and open. And entering through the front door, or busting it down when necessary.

Chuck put up his gun, as he ran after Gordon. The bulky armored vest chafed a little, but it added a sense of security he had rarely felt in the old days when some situation had blown up in their faces. Of course, Gordon's ten man support team following behind him also added to his sense of security.

Stepping into the warehouse, Chuck scanned the area. The cavernous space was gloomy and only dimly lit by dirt encrusted windows set high in the walls. More importantly, it appeared utterly vacant. All of their intelligence had said this was Lex Luthor's Gotham City headquarters and that the man himself would be here.

Reportedly, Lex Luthor had been killed in a car-bomb attack in Metropolis almost five months earlier. And officially he was still dead. The first inkling Chuck had had that he might still be alive had come from Lana. But it wasn't until Gordon had joined the team that they had received their first limited proof – Luthor's fingerprints in a place he couldn't have possibly visited before his 'supposed' death.

The trail to find the source of the spider war-bots had eventually led them to Luthor and then on to this warehouse. But suddenly, it looked like the trail had gone cold or had been another red herring.

Turning his attention from the warehouse in general, Chuck focused on finding his partner. It hadn't seemed like she had entered that far before him, but when he finally spotted her, she was already climbing the stairs at the far end of the building leading to a small loft office area.

"Gordon, wait for backup," said Chuck into his headset, as he began sprinting for the stairs.

"Fortune favors the bold, Bartowski," retorted Gordon, but she did slow her pace to give him a chance to catch up.

Chuck caught up with her at the top of the stairs. She raised her weapon and at a nod that Chuck was ready, she proceeded to kick down another door.

Empty was Chuck's first impression. But then he spotted a computer on a table in the far corner. Walking over, he put his hand on its CPU box. It was still warm.

"We just missed him, or someone," announced Chuck.

Looking over at Gordon, he saw her give a small nod of acknowledgement as she shuffled through a stack of papers on another table.

Chuck reached down to turn the computer back on, but was stopped by a sharp call from Gordon.

"Don't power it up, Bartowski. Wait until we can get it back to the lab, in case it is booby-trapped."

Chuck pulled his hand back. He should have known better, he was the Nerd Herd guy.

Chuck walked over to where Gordon was still thumbing through the papers. She had demonstrated her photographic memory before, so Chuck tried to wait patiently while she absorbed all their contents. Since it looked like all the potential excitement was over, Chuck took a moment to safe his weapon before sliding it into the holster on his hip.

The exposed hip holster made him almost feel like an old west gunslinger. Or it would have if he was carrying a 'real' gun. But his weapon was a combination taser and trank gun. In the old days he had occasionally used a similar weapon, but it had been because Sarah and Casey didn't trust him with a 'real' weapon. However now it was different; it wasn't just him. Gordon and her whole team carried non-lethal weapons. She claimed the reason was you could get a lot more useful information from a live captive than a dead one, but Chuck wasn't certain it was the whole story.

No, Gordon had become Sarah's replacement at Diana's suggestion, which indicated Gordon had spent a sufficient amount of time with Diana to gain her trust. And Chuck knew of Diana's anti-lethal force stance and her truly persuasive personality. He was certain anyone who spent much time with Diana would definitely be influenced.

Casey and one of Gordon's agents step into the room.

"The building is secure," began Casey. "The men have begun a detailed sweep of the main level."

Chuck looked over to where Casey stood in a relaxed pose in his own set of combat gear. He thought Casey, too, was enjoying the new dynamics of their team. Oh, he had complained bitterly when he was compelled to stop carrying his beloved model 1911 Colt 45, but otherwise he seemed happy with the more straight-forward tactics and lesser dependency on disguises and cover stories.

As Gordon put down the last piece of paper, Chuck asked, "Find anything useful?"

She shook her head and then took a moment to remove her black baseball cap with F.B.I. stenciled on the front in bright yellow letters. Her shoulder length fiery red hair came cascading down from where it had been tucked up out of the way.

"Nothing immediately useful, Chuck," said Gordon dropping the surnames now that the potential action was over. "Oh, there are a number of invoices for equipment we will need to pursue to see if we can reverse engineer what they were working on, but nothing that jumps out and says where they have gone."

As Chuck stared at her, he was suddenly reminded of the first time he had met her.

Part 2 – _Four days after Sarah first put on the Ring_

Chuck was moping around in the command center. His shift at the BuyMore wasn't due to start for another three hours, but he had found it impossible to hang around his apartment. His sister, Ellie, was working the afternoon shift at the hospital, which left her in the apartment, too, for the morning. And he just hadn't been in the mood to deal with her questions.

Whether it was a sister thing or a woman's intuition thing, Ellie hadn't truly accepted the 'Sarah gone to Kentucky to nurse sick Aunt' cover story. He knew it was his own fault. He had been taking the separation a lot harder than was appropriate if Sarah was just gone to take care of a sick aunt. No, he had been behaving like he had lost her forever. And Ellie had obviously picked up on that. Maybe he was going to have to tell her he didn't think Sarah was coming back. He certainly couldn't tell her the truth that Sarah had put on some mysterious ring and then departed for some destination halfway across the universe.

But sitting here, alone, wasn't helping his mood. He had no idea where Casey and Diana were other than not here. Casey and the computer geeks at the N.S.A. had somehow tweaked the BuyMore employee scheduling software so he was almost always scheduled to work the same shifts as Chuck, therefore it was unlikely Casey was over at the BuyMore. It was possible Casey and Diana were gone on some mission, but it was more likely they simply weren't working yet today.

Deciding it was better to kill the next few hours playing some mindless videogames than sitting around here by himself, Chuck had just pulled out his phone to call Morgan, when one of the command center's security monitors flared to life. Glancing at it, he realized it was connected to a camera mounted inside one of the secret entrances located across the street. He had expected to see Casey or Diana, but instead found himself staring at the image of a red-headed woman in a dark colored business suit. She quickly stepped out of the range of the camera, but he had seen enough to be certain he had never seen her before.

For a second his mind flashed back to the recent commando attacks, but everything had been quiet on that front since the battle at Fort Knox. The woman wasn't dressed like a commando or leading a team. And she must have the proper access codes as the alarms weren't blaring.

It was almost a five minute walk from that entrance to the command center and Chuck found himself anxiously fidgeting as he waited. At least for the moment the situation was almost enough to put thoughts of Sarah on hold.

Finally, the woman stepped into the room and Chuck got a good look at her. She was young. Oh, not impossibly youthful like the seventeen year old Diana appeared to be, but definitely still under twenty-five. Morgan's thirtieth birthday was coming up in less than two weeks and his own was only a few months away. And looking at the youthful woman once again drove home that he was almost out of his twenties and what had he accomplished? When he had been back at Stanford, he had had all these grand plans and dreams of what he would accomplish by the time he was thirty. But of all the things on the long list, he hadn't accomplished a single one of them. The closest he had come had been to have Sarah say she loved him. But saying she loved him and then disappearing in a shaft of green light was way short of the goal of being happily married.

Trying to shake his maudlin mood, Chuck straightened from where he had been leaning against the central table and extended his hand.

"I'm Chuck Bartowski."

The woman gave a guarded smile as she extended her hand. "Special Agent Barbara Gordon, F.B.I. I'm here to join the team protecting the Intersect."

"Well, that's me," answered Chuck with an attempt at a self-deprecating laugh.

Gordon gave him the once over and Chuck wasn't sure if she was pleased with what she saw. He glanced down and took in his white BuyMore shirt, black slacks and black Ked's hightops. He was wearing his usual attire for days when he would eventually end up at the BuyMore, but suddenly it felt exceedingly casual compared to the woman's business suit which would look perfectly tailored except for the obvious bulge of a weapon at her right hip.

"I just arrived in town," began Gordon. "And this is the first access I have had to a secured communications set up since receiving my new assignment. I need to talk to your Washington contact, a General Beckman, I believe."

Chuck glanced at the dark videolink monitor. He had never personally called the General. Usually, the General called them or Sarah or John called her. Oh, he had watched the procedure and was certain he could get a connection, but should he? Or should he try to track down John or Diana first?

"Ah, I don't have the necessary userid or password to reach the General. Perhaps we should wait for John Casey or Diana Prince to return," responded Chuck. Then he offered, "Or I could try to track them down."

"That won't be necessary, Mister Bartowski. If you will just show me to the equipment."

"Please, it's just Chuck," replied Chuck as he led her over to the appropriate computer workstation.

"Okay, Chuck. I go by Gordon. Only my parents call me Barbara," the woman said as she sat down at the keyboard. Then as she began to quickly type, she continued. "So tell me, Chuck, do you enjoy working at the BuyMore?"

Chuck wondered where the woman was headed with that question. Did he enjoy working at the BuyMore compared to what? If someone was to offer him his own software development firm, of course he would prefer that, but no one was offering him a dream job. And there were certainly a lot worse places to work than the BuyMore.

"It's okay," Chuck replied noncommittally.

The woman turned to stare up into his eyes for a moment. She didn't possess the soul-penetrating stare Diana had, but it still felt like she could read him like an open book.

Turning back to the keyboard, Gordon pressed a final key and the videolink screen sprang to life. When the picture firmed up it showed an earnest looking Lieutenant. Chuck recognized him as Lieutenant Scott Anderson, one of the General's staff.

"Lieutenant," began Gordon. "I am Special Agent Barbara Gordon with the F.B.I. I am on temporary assignment reporting to General Beckman. If she is available, I would like to speak to her. If not, I would like to schedule a time when I can."

"Agent Gordon," responded Anderson. "I know the General wants to speak with you also. Let me see if she is available. Please hold."

The screen went blank. While they waited, Gordon turned to Chuck.

"Chuck, I have read your dossier and all the mission reports filed by Agents Walker and Casey since they have been assigned to you. It seems only fair that you get to know a little about me in return. Is there anything in particular you would like to know?"

Chuck's mouth almost dropped open in surprise. Both Sarah and Casey had always been so reticent about discussing their backgrounds. And the only other person he had regular contact with was the General and he knew even less about her.

"Ah, you know, you are the first person I have worked with here who has ever asked me that."

Gordon smiled. It was the first real smile he had seen from her and Chuck suddenly realized how attractive she was. She certainly was in the same league as Sarah and Lana in the looks department. Oh, she definitely wasn't in Diana's league, but then no one was.

"Well, it is probably our different backgrounds. Most of the people you have dealt with before are from the C.I.A. or N.S.A. or military intelligence. And they are all about secrets whether it is keeping them or stealing them or whatever. It is not like that in the F.B.I. Oh, details of a specific case may be 'need to know', but most of our work is out in the open."

Chuck nodded. "Okay, since you are offering, a brief bio would be nice."

"I was born and raised in Gotham City," Gordon began. "My father has been a member of the Gotham City Police Department since before I was born. He slowly worked his way up through the ranks. He has been the Police Commissioner for the last six years. So I guess you could say law enforcement is in my blood.

"I studied pre-Law in college, but before going to Law school I decided some practical experience would be useful, so I joined the F.B.I. After graduating from Quantico four years ago, I have been a field agent working out of offices in Phoenix, Star City, Chicago, and most recently Metropolis."

"Do you know why you got selected for this assignment?" asked Chuck.

Gordon nodded. "Diana Prince requested me."

"You know Diana?" asked Chuck.

"We met on a case about three years ago. She was a big help in solving it, yet she made sure I got all the credit. It was a big boost for my career."

That sounded like Diana. She was more about getting things done than looking for personal glory. And Chuck couldn't help but think about the things Casey had told him he had witnessed Diana do while they had been inside Fort Knox. Then there was that whole secret Presidential protocol and Diana's enigmatic age. Diana was most definitely a meta-human of some sort.

Chuck wondered if Gordon knew Diana was a meta-human or if she knew about meta-humans at all. With Diana, Lana, and several of Lana's friends all having meta-human or meta-humanlike abilities, there was no way the topic could be avoided if Gordon was going to be around full time. And he realized not only couldn't the topic be avoided, but it shouldn't be avoided if Gordon was going to be useful or even safe.

"Ah, Gordon," began Chuck trying to project the seriousness of his question with his tone. "Do you know about meta-humans?"

Gordon's eyes widened at his question, but before she could respond the General appeared on the screen. Chuck was left hanging as to whether her response was due to her not knowing or her not expecting Chuck to know.

"Agent Gordon it is nice to meet you at last," began Beckman.

Chuck recognized the more-than-usual frostiness in the General's tone. He would have been wondering at the reason, if Gordon hadn't already told him she was here at Diana's recommendation. Chuck suspected the General was still touchy about a mere Lieutenant pulling rank on her.

"It is nice to meet you, too, General Beckman," responded Gordon. "I am glad you agreed to let me be part of this operation."

"Well, I didn't have much choice, did I?" snapped Beckman.

Gordon got a puzzled look on her face. Chuck saw it and the General must have, too.

"Sorry, about that Agent Gordon. I find this whole situation rather awkward."

"I'm sorry, General. I don't follow."

"Do you know why you received this assignment, Agent Gordon?" asked Beckman.

Gordon shrugged. "Diana Prince called me yesterday and asked if I was interested in a temporary assignment a little outside normal F.B.I. operations. I owed her a favor, so I agreed."

"How well do you know, Lieutenant Prince?"

"Not well," answered Gordon. "We worked a case together almost three years ago. Then I didn't speak to her again until yesterday."

Beckman nodded. "Okay, Gordon. Let's start over as I don't want us getting off on the wrong foot. I am not certain who Diana Prince is, but she certainly carries a lot more clout than any other Lieutenant I have ever met and probably more than most Generals or Admirals. I may have overreacted when she ordered me to accept you as a temporary replacement for Agent Walker, who is off doing who knows what for Prince.

"But based on your comments, I am going to assume you aren't part of some secret agenda of hers, but merely someone she had worked with before and believes can do a competent job. Now, my primary question for you, Agent Gordon, while you are here will you be working for me or will you be working for Lieutenant Prince?"

Gordon couldn't suppress the surprised look on her face. "To the best of my knowledge, I will be reporting to you, General, for the duration of this assignment."

"Good, Agent Gordon. Now why don't you take a couple of days to settle in and review the files about the Intersect and then we can go over your assignment in more detail."

"General, I am ready to go over the assignment now. I have already reviewed all the mission reports filed by Agents Walker and Casey. Based on what I have read, I have a few changes in procedures I would like to implement."

"Agent Gordon, I don't believe you have known about the Intersect and Mister Bartowski for more than eighteen hours. How could you have already reviewed all the mission reports? This team has been very active in the last eighteen months."

"I don't believe it is addressed in my personnel file, but I have a photographic memory. Generally, I can absorb all the contents of a page in a couple of seconds. It has been useful on some of my cases which have involved shifting through mounds of data.

"And that leads up to first change I would like to discuss. According to the field reports, Mister Bartowski has been placed in life threatening positions on thirty-four occasions in the last eighteen months, sixteen of which resulted in weapons fire. Assuming this pattern is going to continue, I am not comfortable putting what is in effect an untrained civilian into these situations. It is dangerous for him and, frankly, dangerous for the rest of the team.

"I would prefer to send him to Quantico for their twenty week anti-terrorist training program, but I assume you don't want him out of action for that long. However if I am to be a part of this team, I do insist you let me start him on a fitness and unarmed combat training program so he will be better prepared for situations that arise in the field."

The general nodded slowly. "I agree it would be better for everyone concerned if he was better able to look out for himself. Mister Bartowski, would you agree to participate in Agent Gordon's training program?"

Chuck was beginning to think the General had forgotten he was even present. But in response to her question, he turned to look at Gordon. Casey and Sarah had made noises about training him, but had never suggested an actual organized training program. It sounded like it might be a lot of work, but if it would improve his odds of staying alive, it was probably worth it. Had he really been in situations that ended up in shoot-outs sixteen times?

"Ah, I think some training would probably be a good idea, General," answered Chuck.

"Fine," answered Beckman before turning back to Gordon. "Good suggestion, Agent Gordon. Anything else?"

"Yes, just like police officers, when F.B.I. agents are in the field, they are required to wear vests. I think this should apply to Mister Bartowski, too. I don't know if you are aware, but the state of the art body armor is a lot less intrusive than in the old days."

"Agreed," said Beckman without any argument.

Gordon paused to take a deep breath. Now while the General seemed to be in an amenable mood, it was time for the big suggestion.

"General, I would also recommend dumping the BuyMore cover for Mister Bartowski and have him function full-time in his capacity as the Intersect. According to my analysis of the field reports, ninety-four percent of his 'flashes' that have led to arrests and convictions have occurred when he has been away from the BuyMore. Having him spend forty hours a week in a non-productive location is not an efficient use of a valuable asset. I am sure if I and Agent Casey and the analysts at the C.I.A., N.S.A, and F.B.I. work at it, we can find locations where he is much more likely to have useful 'flashes'."

"Wait a second," exclaimed Chuck. "I never volunteered to have the Intersect in my head. I received what I thought was a personal email from my old college roommate and, bang, I get saddled with the Intersect instead. I don't want to sacrifice my personal life just because it is convenient for the government."

"Chuck," began Gordon in a calm tone. "In what has effectively been your spare time you have aided in stopping seven groups intent on terrorist acts against this country. You have stopped eight groups from illegally transferring advanced technology and weapon designs to unfriendly foreign governments. You have broken up four drug transportation networks. You have uncovered six moles within various government agencies. And the list goes on. Think of all the good you could do, if you were working on a full-time basis."

Chuck could feel his heart beginning to pound. If he agreed, he was very afraid it would be the first step down the slippery slope to where he would be the Intersect 24/7 and room for his family and friends would be quickly squeezed out. He was just about to respond when he was cut-off by the General.

"Agent Gordon, I know you have the best intentions, but you have been here less than an hour and I think it is best if we take things a little slower. Get a training program set up for Mister Bartowski. See about acquiring the body armor you talked about. And I am interested in your thoughts about potentially more effective locations to place Mister Bartowski to cause useful flashes. But for the moment I am going to support his desire to remain at the BuyMore. As you say, his productive has been remarkably high for only working with us on a part-time basis. I don't want to risk upsetting the apple cart with abrupt changes. And I also don't want to risk burning him out prematurely. Take it slow, Gordon, and perhaps things will work out to your satisfaction."

"Yes, General," said Gordon. She saw so much wasted potential in the current set up and it had been worth a shot to make some significant changes up front. But Beckman had some valid points on her side, too, and had been dealing with situation for a long time.

Chuck was surprised the General had taken his side. He wanted to say thanks, but was afraid he would somehow screw things up if he opened his mouth at the moment. So he settled for a simple nod of thanks in her direction.

"Ah, one last thing, General Beckman, I am an F.B.I. agent not a spy," Gordon began and the way she said the word 'spy' made it seem as though she thought it was something dirty. "I am not interested in play acting as somebody's girlfriend or pretending to work in an Orange-Orange store. I believe it is best if I give my full attention to the mission."

"That is acceptable to me. Agent Casey can continue to provide security to Mister Bartowski while he is at the BuyMore. But you will have to come up with some reason to be around Mister Bartowski with some frequency without compromising his position at the BuyMore and with his family and friends."

General Beckman leaned back in her chair and then continued. "Well, we covered a lot more ground during this initial conversation than I was expecting. I still think you should take several days to get settled in and get acquainted with Mister Bartowski and Agent Casey and then we can continue this conversation. Beckman out."

Chuck stared at the blank screen for a moment. Beckman had ended the conversation as abruptly as always, but it had to have been the longest conversation he had ever participated in with the General.

Then he turned to look at the F.B.I. agent. "Gordon, you may have read the reports, but you don't have any grasp of the situation here. There is a large contingent in the government who want to treat me like the computer the Intersect was designed to be. They want to lock me in some dark room, feed me data from the outside world, and expect me to spit out answers. They would like to take away my whole life. I have had to fight hard to keep a semblance of my life while doing a job I never signed up for. I know you have the best of intentions, but please be careful you don't screw everything up for me."

Gordon looked at Chuck and realized he was right. Collating data had always been easy for her and sometimes she forgot some of the most important things weren't written down.

"I'm sorry, Chuck. Sometimes I get overzealous. It is probably my background. Gotham City has been mostly run by gangs and criminals as far back as I can remember. My father has fought against that and the related corruption within the department his entire career. You are already doing a lot to help the country be a better place, but I can just see the potential for so much more."

Chuck nodded in acceptance of her apology. He could see her position, he really could. And hopefully, she could see his, too.

"Okay, I think we better understand each other's position. How about we call a truce on the topic for the moment? You can continue to make your case in the future, but you have to understand my need to maintain my life, too."

Gordon nodded slowly and then stuck out her right hand. Chuck gladly clasped it and gave a firm shake. Then Chuck moved over to the conference table and pulled out a couple of chairs.

"Now, Gordon, did Diana explain the real reason you are here?"

Gordon dropped into the other chair. "Not really, she just said I would be replacing Agent Walker for several months while she was on a temporary assignment and that she would fill in the details once I got here."

"Well, we could wait for her to arrive, but I might as well get started with the parts I know. There are things going on, important things, that the General isn't aware of," began Chuck.

Gordon sat there almost in shock as Chuck began his tale of LuthorCorp, Lana Lang, meta-humans, and the Green Lantern Corp.

Part 3___- Ninety-three days after Sarah first put on the Ring_

A lot had happened in the three months since the day he had first met Barbara Gordon. As he stood there staring as Gordon continued to flip through the papers Chuck realized much of what had happened had changed his life for the better.

Gordon's training program had definitely yielded results; he was in the best shape of his life. He had been running and weight-training on alternate days in addition to the martial arts. He was bigger, stronger, faster, and had more stamina than he could ever remember.

But even more important, it was like they say, exercise is one of the best remedies for depression. He had been so down about Sarah's departure even his sister had picked up there was more to the situation than he had been letting on. However even as his body toughened up under Gordon's tutelage, so too did his feelings of loss for Sarah come under control. Oh, he still missed her terribly, but he was now better able to keep it in perspective.

And as Gordon pushed his skills and gave him more challenging assignments in the field, he had come to better appreciate the importance of his work and the good he was doing. This, in turn helped him understand why Sarah had chosen to go away. If she thought learning to use the ring would let her do good on a world wide scale, then he would have to support her decision.

"Well," began Gordon, straightening up from the table and breaking Chuck's line of thought. "We'll let the guys finish their search of the building, but I think this is going to turn into a dead end or at least a dead end for today."

Gordon looked up into Chuck's eyes and then smiled. "Chuck, we have been working really hard the last couple of days. I think we need a little break. Are you up for a big, fancy party? I happen to know the annual Policemen's Ball is being held tonight at Wayne Manor. And I'm sure if I call my Dad, he can scrounge us a couple of invitations."

Chuck recognized the sudden glint in Gordon's eye. "An extremely tall, stunningly attractive brunette wouldn't also happen to be attending this party?"

Gordon's grin broadened. "Maybe."

Chuck knew his new partner had it bad for the extremely young-looking, naval Lieutenant. And it had all started on Lana's last day as a Nerd Herder.

Part 4___- Six days after Sarah first put on the Ring_

Lana stood behind the Nerd Herd help desk. Morgan was standing next to her. It was one of those rare instances where Big Mike was standing on the other side of the counter facing them rather than hiding back in his office. He had been droning on for almost ten minutes, but after the first few seconds, she had mostly tuned him out.

Instead her thoughts were focused on how much longer she needed to pose as a BuyMore employee. She had promised Sarah she would keep an eye on Chuck and Casey, but that didn't mean she had to be tied down in the BuyMore for months. Both Chuck and Casey had her number and she could reach them from anywhere in the city within a couple of seconds. And it had now been almost a week since the events at Fort Knox without any additional LuthorCorp attempts against Chuck.

Plus Sarah's replacement, Barbara Gordon, had arrived several days earlier. Certainly, she didn't have Lana's metahuman abilities, but from what Lana had been able to learn, she had good, solid F.B.I. credentials.

So perhaps the time had come to start thinking about a graceful way to withdraw from her position. Oh, she didn't want to do anything too drastic, as she might still need to hang around the store occasionally to keep an eye on things. Should she just give the normal two weeks notice? Did she want to waste two more weeks of her life as a Nerd Herder, when the time could be better spent researching who had been behind the events back at Fort Knox?

She had just about decided to interrupt Big Mike to tell him she was giving notice when she spotted a familiar figure come striding in through the store's front door. Tall, blonde, insanely handsome, there was no mistaking Oliver Queen. What was he doing at the BuyMore? He was far more recognizable then her and would put her cover at risk. Then Lana wondered why that suddenly mattered so much to her, if she really intended to quit.

Oliver strode briskly up to the desk. It didn't seem to bother him in the least to interrupt Big Mike's monologue.

"Lana, I have uncovered a lead on the . . . ah . . . spiders. Can you accompany me to Star City? I can't reach Bart or Clark and could really use the backup. My jet is sitting over at Bob Hope and should be refueled and ready to go in thirty minutes."

Lana just looked at him for a moment. Then her eyes flicked to Morgan and Big Mike, who were both staring at Queen. At any second she expected one of them to recognize the famous billionaire playboy.

"Ah, you couldn't have just called or texted?" asked Lana, as she pushed her fake glasses more firmly up her nose as a subtle reminder she was undercover.

Oliver grinned and then did a long, slow scan of the surrounding store. "Oh, I was curious how the other half lives. What is a minimum wage lifestyle like?"

"Lana, what's this talk about jets, Star City, and spiders?" asked Big Mike.

It appeared he was going to say more, but he was cut off by Morgan.

"Hey, I know you. I saw you at Comic-Con last year. You were there for the launch of the new Warrior Angel game, 'Wings of Fire'. You're Oliver Queen."

Morgan paused and when he turned towards Lana, she could see the passionate fire burning in his eyes. Morgan probably couldn't care less that Oliver was the billionaire CEO of Queen Industries. No, all that mattered to a gamer like him was that Queen was the power behind Dragon-Queen Productions, the producers of Warrior Angel and a plethora of other comics, games, anima, and cinema.

"How do you know Oliver Queen?" asked Morgan. And then with an almost accusatory glare he added, "And why didn't you ever share?"

Before she had a chance to respond, Lana saw Chuck, Diana, and Gordon all enter through the store's front door. The gang is all here, Lana thought with almost a wry grin. Then she wondered if Oliver had called and asked them to meet him here. Perhaps it was going to be like Fort Knox all over again and it was going to take their combined efforts to handle whatever Oliver had uncovered in Star City.

Lana caught Oliver's eye and then nodded towards the front of the store. "Did you contact them, too?"

Oliver followed her gaze. "Ah, no."

Morgan had also followed her gaze. With a perplexed look on his face, he quietly asked, "Chuck?"

Damn. Lana realized she was so annoyed at Oliver for potentially wrecking her cover; she might have just done in Chuck's without thinking her comment through.

The others had nearly reached the Nerd Herd counter and Lana was furiously thinking about how to salvage the situation, when they were all distracted by what sounded like a jet engine cranking up somewhere in the back area of the store.

Instantly, Lana assumed this might be the start of another attack by LuthorCorp. Everything around her ground to a halt as she shifted into Prometheus Time to investigate.

Quickly in the sudden silence, Lana raced towards the back. While on the one hand the silence of Prometheus Time was calming, on the other it had the disadvantage of not allowing her to use sound to track the unexpected noise to its source.

However, she needn't have worried. As soon as she stepped through the swinging door leading into the back area, she couldn't help but see the cause. Big Mike's glass-walled office was filled with a literal blizzard of frozen-in-place white fluff. And before she took a single step closer, she knew what the white fluff was – popcorn.

Running over, Lana almost pressed her nose against the glass, as she stared into Big Mike's office. After three days, she had been beginning to think Lester and Jeff had given up on her hasty suggestion that they fill Big Mike's office with popcorn, if they wanted to watch her kiss another girl. And if they were going to follow through, she had expected them to try something in the middle of the night, not in the middle of the day when the whole store was full of people. She would definitely have to give them extra points for sheer audacity.

Looking over Big Mike's office more carefully, Lana realized three of the ceiling panels had been pulled back and that was how the popcorn was entering. At the rate the popcorn was flowing into the room, it would take hours, if not days to fill it to the brim like in the old 'Real Genius' movie. Since it was unlikely they had more than minutes before they would be caught and stopped, she was going to have to decide whether their effort, even if unsuccessful, was worthy of the reward.

Curious why their setup sounded more like a jet engine than anything else, Lana set off to check the situation out. Since they had to be in the second floor storage area, Lana headed over to the pull-down access stairway.

It was locked in the up position, of course, as though Jeff and Lester thought it would delay any interference. But Lana knew the upper level would still be easily accessible from the other end which was wide open to allow the forklift to place and retrieve shipping pallets.

Running back passed the locked cage room where the smaller, more valuable inventory was kept; Lana reached the large open storage area right behind the loading dock. In only moments she was standing beneath the open access area to the second floor storage area that extended over the cage room, the employee break room, and finally Big Mike's office. With a quick flex of her knees, Lana launched herself into the air and landed lightly on the second floor.

Winding her way through the haphazardly stacked boxes of inventory, Lana quickly reached the area over Big Mike's office and took in the complex claptrap of equipment Lester and Jeff had assembled. She found it hard to believe, but rather than preparing the popcorn and bringing it in ahead of time, they were actually using three large kettles to pop it in real time. The kettles were topped with a homemade construction of clear plastic and duct tape which led to three dust blowers like professional lawn care teams used. These were blowing through what looked like dryer vent pipe into the three lifted floor panels that had to exit through the ceiling of Big Mike's office.

It was a set up that would have done MacGyver, except for the heating source for the large kettles. Jeff and Lester were using open-flame blowtorches. Were they insane? They could burn down the whole store.

Immediately, Lana turned all nine of the blowtorches off. Then not knowing how long it would be before someone got up here for 'real' and not wanting them to try again, she completely removed them from the assembly and moved them back down to the main floor storage area.

Deciding she had done all that was necessary to ensure everyone's safety, Lana made her way back down into the main part of the store and resumed her position before dropping out of Prometheus Time.

"What is that?" exclaimed about five people at once.

"Jeff, Lester," growled Big Mike, as he began jogging towards the back of the store.

"Another attack?" asked Chuck, as the rest of them set off in pursuit of the irate store manager.

"No," answered Lana. "It really is Jeff and Lester. And I'm afraid it is my fault. Remember the little project I gave them to keep them out of my hair? Well, they decided to go for it in a more spectacular manner than I was expecting."

They pushed through the door leading into the back of the store and found Big Mike staring through the glass door of his office with a flabbergasted expression on his face. Lana might have removed the heat source from the guys' popcorn making device, but there had been enough in the system so that it was still spewing forth at an impressive rate. The office might not be filled to the brim with popcorn, but every flat surface appeared to be covered at least an inch or two deep.

"Jeff, Lester," rumbled Big Mike again and this time it felt like there was more than just simple annoyance in his tone.

Lana saw Big Mike glance to the office's ceiling and realized he knew in general what had to be going on.

Quickly, Big Mike walked over to the folding staircase that led to the second level and which was still in the up and locked position. He only gave it a quick glance before walking over to the area where the cleaning supplies were kept. He picked up a broom and walked back over to the locked staircase. Reaching the broom up over his head, it only took him two tries to stab the recessed latch which unlocked the staircase in an emergency.

The roar from the dust blowers up on the second level was much louder now and Big Mike climbed up five steps before beginning to shout.

It took less than thirty seconds before the dust blowers began to be shut off one by one. But it was almost another minute before Big Mike came down the stairs with a sheepish Lester and Jeff following in his wake.

When they were all back on the main floor, Big Mike pointed towards his office where the last of the popcorn was still trickling down from the ceiling.

"This has to be the worst stunt the two of you have ever pulled. I don't know why you felt it was necessary to blow my office full of popcorn, but you are going to clean up every last kernel. And you are NOT going to do it on company time."

Lester shot Lana a pleading glance even as he began nodding his head towards Big Mike.

Lana realized she felt a little sorry for the pair. She was the one who had put them up to it; she just never expected them to actually try to do it.

She couldn't just leave them to hang for it alone. And what the hell, she was planning on quitting anyway, so she might as well exit with a bit of flair.

"I'm sorry, Big Mike, I'm afraid this is all my fault."

Big Mike turned to look at Lana. A little of the fire went out of his eyes, but not all of it, as he nodded for her to continue.

"I think it was on my second day here, Lester was sort of annoying me and I didn't yet realize he annoys almost everyone the same way and I should just ignore it. So I decided I needed to do something to distract him for a while. We happened to be discussing old movies and the scene from 'Real Genuis' where the house is filled with popcorn and then literally busts apart from expanding popcorn when the satellite beam hits it came to mind. So I suggested the guys might want to do the same thing to your office. I just never thought they would actually do it."

"Tell him why we did it," said Lester at barely more than a whisper.

Lana looked over at Lester and gave him a small nod. They tried to fulfill her request and they were going to be spending hours, if not days cleaning Big Mike's office, so it felt like she should keep her part of the bargain. And besides, after thinking about it ever since the first conversation, she had to know what kissing Diana was like.

Quietly Lana turned and walked over to where Diana, Chuck, Morgan, Gordon, and Oliver stood slightly to one side.

Reaching Diana, Lana stretched one hand behind the taller woman's neck. Pulling lightly forward and down, Diana only resisted for a moment. In seconds, Lana's lips were pressed lightly against Diana's. At first she just extended the kiss to give Lester and Jeff their money's worth, but then Diana's lips slightly parted and her tongue danced out to touch Lana's. For a few seconds all thoughts of the guys fled as Lana focused on the kiss. And she had to admit Diana kissed better than most guys she had known.

It felt far too quick, but in a matter of seconds the kiss was over. Diana gave her a quick wink and a grin before straightening back to her full six foot one height.

Diana's motion made Lana realize she had been standing on her toes by the end of the kiss and now she quickly lowered herself before turning back to where Big Mike was standing. His mouth was gaping open, as were those of most of the others in the room.

"Big Mike, since I was at least partially to blame for the whole popcorn affair," began Lana once she found her voice. "I better help Jeff and Lester clean up the mess."

"Ah, Lana," interrupted Oliver. "Star City, remember? We need to go today while the trail is hot. Don't you think you've hung around this BuyMore long enough? We have bigger fish to fry."

"Miss Fordman," began Big Mike suddenly sounding all official. "What is he talking about?"

Lana sighed. She needed to extricate herself from this whole situation while trying to leave Chuck's cover intact.

"The name is not Fordman, Big Mike," said Lana as she pulled off the fake glasses and slid them into the pocket of her slacks. "My name is Lana Lang, or you might better recognize me as the former Mrs. Lex Luthor. I have been considering making a large investment in the BuyMore Corporation. But my experience is that you can only learn so much from talking to C.E.O.s and reading 10-K and 10-Q filings with the S.E.C. If I am going to buy a company, I like to have some idea how things operate down in the trenches, as the performance of any company always comes down to the performance of the employees. So, I picked a store at random and joined the staff."

"You're Mrs. Lex Luthor, the late billionaire's wife?" exclaimed Chuck, as he realized she was trying to distance herself from him to protect his cover.

Lana nodded. "How else would I know the famous Oliver Queen?"

Then Lana turned back to Big Mike and extended her hand. "It has been a pleasure meeting you and your staff. Sorry, if I caused some unnecessary disruptions."

As he shook the offered hand, Big Mike asked almost in a daze. "Are you really going to buy the BuyMore chain?"

"I don't know yet. I have some more research to perform and it will probably be several months before I make a final decision. And I may stop in occasionally with a few questions, if you don't mind."

Big Mike just nodded. He didn't run into billionaires every day.

Lana threw a nod in Jeff and Lester's direction and then turned to Oliver. "Shall we be on our way?"

Trying to put a little distance between the two of them and the others, Lana led Oliver back into the main part of the store and then on out through the front doors.

Part 5___- Ninety-three days after Sarah first put on the Ring_

Gordon pulled their rental car up to the valet parking, which was set up just outside the front gate of Wayne Manor for the gala event. After they exited the car, she took a moment to adjust Chuck's bowtie.

Taking a step back, she said. "There. I think you look quite handsome." In the three months since she had first met him, Chuck had taken to wearing his hair shorter and had trimmed a good inch from his sideburns. He now looked decidedly G.Q. in his black tuxedo.

Chuck glanced down at his formal attire. Three hours earlier they had been on a mission to track down the elusive Lex Luthor and he had never even heard of this party let alone thought to bring along a tuxedo when they had traveled cross-country from Los Angeles – not that he even owned a tuxedo. But Gordon had grown up here in Gotham City and had known where to find a tuxedo rental place that had gotten him fitted and out the door in under an hour.

Next Chuck turned his attention to his partner. Gordon was decked out in something shimmering and green which complemented her red hair. The neckline plunged deep in the front, the back was virtually nonexistent, and the dress stopped a good seven inches short of her knees. She was simply stunning. For a moment Chuck fantasized about seeing Sarah in that dress. Oh, he had seen Sarah in similar attire on several missions, but only ever on missions, certainly not on a personal, social occasion like this.

"And you are stunning," said Chuck returning the complement. "I think Diana is going to be impressed."

When he had first met Gordon, Chuck had been a little worried about working with another extremely beautiful woman while Sarah was gone. Oh, he was already working with Diana, but she was so far out of his league, it wasn't really a problem. But Gordon was in the same 'supermodel' range as Sarah rather than the otherworldly beauty of Diana. He had thought it would be awkward with Gordon, but she had quickly and firmly informed him she was gay.

And once he had figured out she was really attracted to Diana, it had become a little personal mission of his own to help Gordon connect with the other woman who looked so young yet was actually quite old. Of course, his progress had been limited as Diana had departed only shortly after Lana had left the BuyMore. Oh, Lana was still mostly in Los Angeles and they usually saw her once or twice a week, but they had only crossed paths with Diana a couple of times in the intervening three months. Diana had claimed when she had first departed that she had a mission of her own she needed to accomplish. But she apparently had some powerful sixth sense, as she always seemed to appear when they most desperately needed her help.

"Thanks, I hope you're right," answered Gordon. Then she threaded her arm through his and turned them towards the long driveway leading to their destination.

They walked in companionable silence until they were seventy-five feet past the main gate and reached the spot where the drive did a dogleg turn and the mansion first came into view between the thick trees.

"Holy shit," exclaimed Chuck. He threw in a quick apology for his rude language, but he felt inside the profane exclamation had been entirely appropriate.

He didn't know what he had been expecting, but probably something along the lines of what you saw from the street when driving through Beverly Hills. Oh, something way beyond what he would ever be able to afford, but still something he could grasp from various T.V. shows involving the rich and beautiful.

But Wayne Manor was something on an entirely different scale. The central portion of the giant façade towered a full seven stories and then wings extended far to the left and right which looked short in comparison but still stood three stories tall.

The only thing Chuck had ever seen that was remotely on the same scale was Hearst Castle in San Simeon. Hearst Castle might rival what he was seeing on a square footage basis, but it could in no way compete in terms of style. No, Hearst Castle was a strange mishmash of Ancient Roman, Medieval Northern European, and quasi-modern. But Wayne Manor had a very consistent style – High Gothic.

And even with the very bright illumination of the façade for this social gathering, the building still managed to loom up in a very dark and threatening manner. It reminded him of something that took a moment to come into focus. And when it did, a brief snippet of the old theme song played through his head. Collinwood, the ancestral mansion of the Collins family in the old 'Dark Shadows' T.V. show was what sprang to mind. He could easily picture the eerie, sprawling Wayne Manor infested with vampires, ghosts, witches, and assorted other demons. Morgan had always been a bigger 'Dark Shadows' fan than he was and he knew Morgan would just love to see this creepy home that looked more like an ancient insane asylum than a place where anyone would actually live.

"Wow," exclaimed Chuck when he found his voice. "This is the biggest mansion I have ever seen. And my first impression is that it is also the creepiest. Have you ever been here before?"

"Yeah, although it has been at least seven or eight years. And if you think it looks scary and intimidating now, you should have seen it in the good old days on Halloween. When he was in his late teens and early twenties, Bruce Wayne threw the biggest, wildest Halloween bashes. Whole crews would work for weeks getting the place ready."

"Do you know Bruce Wayne?" asked Chuck. Like Oliver Queen or Lex Luthor in his younger days, Bruce Wayne was another famous, or was it infamous, playboy. And like the other two, he was the scion of a rich, powerful family. All three men were within a year of Chuck's own age and he couldn't help but wonder what his life would have been like if he had had rich parents, too.

"I've met him a couple of times, but I don't think I would say I really know him," answered Gordon. "And the last time I talked to him I was, I think, eighteen, so he probably doesn't remember me."

Chuck glanced over at Gordon, who was walking up the inclined drive in four inch heels that added an interesting roll to her hips her normal flat, business-like footwear didn't. She was remarkably beautiful and he was certain if he had met her at eighteen, he would still remember. But then he wasn't a legendary playboy like Bruce Wayne who doubtlessly met equally beautiful women on a daily basis.

They had finally reached the broad circular drive in front of the mansion's main entrance. The area was brightly lit by a string of lampposts that looked straight out of Victorian England and which might have been converted from gas to electricity in only the last week.

A few clusters of people were scattered around the drive and Chuck quickly realized they each contained at least a smoker or two. But Gordon didn't pause and headed straight for the large set of double doors that stood wide open.

Just inside the doorway, they were greeted by a slender fiftyish man in white tie and tails.

"Good evening, Miss Gordon. It has been much too long since you have last visited."

"Thank you, Alfred. It is too kind that you remember me. This is Chuck Bartowski, my escort for the evening."

The older man nodded politely to Chuck and then sprouted a fatherly smile as he turned back towards Gordon. "Remembering people is part of my job and I would be very remiss to forget Commissioner Gordon's daughter. Now, I believe the people you are looking for are in the Armory, the third door on the left."

"Thank you, Alfred," repeated Gordon with a nod.

As they proceeded into the main hall of Wayne Manor, which stretched before them for at least a hundred and fifty feet and whose high ceiling towered at least forty feet above their heads, Chuck leaned closer and whispered. "They have their own Armory?"

"Oh, not in the classical sense with rows and rows of weapons ready to use, from what I remember it is more a museum of the history of personal weapons."

"And who is it we are supposed to meet there?"

Gordon shrugged. "I'm not absolutely certain, but I have learned to trust whatever Alfred says."

Chuck swept his gaze around the main hall as they walked. There had to be over two hundred people in the room, but it didn't feel at all crowded. Did people really live in places of this scale?

"So who is this Alfred? The head butler? He didn't seem to have any trouble remembering you, if it has been years since you have been here."

"Alfred is . . . ah . . . simply Alfred. I guess he is technically Bruce's butler, but he is also a lot more. Bruce's parents were killed when he was a boy and Alfred pretty much raised him. I think Alfred looks after a lot of Bruce's personal affairs and he has contacts all over the city. I know my father doesn't think of Alfred as just some servant, but more as an important asset of Gotham City.

"And sometimes I think Alfred has a photographic memory as good as mine," Gordon continued. "At least I have never seen him forget a name or a face. And sometimes he seems to have this almost magical gift for knowing the right answer. I mean he has probably been by the front door for hours, but yet he could tell you exactly where everyone currently in the house is located."

"Is he meta-human?" asked Chuck.

"You know, I never really thought about it before. Of course, I never knew about meta-humans back in high school, which is the last time I lived in Gotham, and I probably haven't thought about Alfred since then. But now that you mention it, he always did seem to have some slightly uncanny gifts."

By this point the pair had made their way across the broad hall angling towards the left wall. And along the way they had managed to snag a couple of flutes of Champaign from one of the nearly countless men in white livery.

The third set of double doors in the left wall were closed, but Gordon didn't hesitate to open one and step through. As Chuck pulled the heavy door closed behind them, the hubbub of the party, not to mention the music from the ballroom located to the right of the main hall, became surprisingly muted. The eighteen inch thick stone walls of the old mansion made for an effective sound barrier.

As Chuck turned from the door and took a good look at this room Alfred had referred to as 'The Armory', it seemed like it would be better described as a hall than a room. It was at least seventy-five feet long, but only fifteen feet wide. And each of the long walls was lined by life-sized mannequins attired in the military garb from many different eras. From a Roman soldier with a plumed helmet to a knight in chain mail to an American Indian in war paint to a World War 1 German infantry man with a gas mask, over fifty eras of soldier's attire and weapons were represented in this room.

It was almost overwhelming and Chuck stood frozen by the door trying to take it all in. But after less than ten seconds, Gordon grabbed Chuck's wrist and gave a firm tug to get him moving forward. And when he momentarily pulled his attention away from the war-clad mannequins, he finally spotted the room's three other occupants standing deep in conversation about halfway down the long space. They were two women and one man. Chuck instantly recognized one of the women was the statuesque Diana Prince. He was certain he had never met the other pair.

Gordon walked briskly in the direction of the others and Chuck almost had to jog to keep up. At their approach, the other three looked up and all began to smile. This seemed to cause Gordon to increase her pace even more and she seemed to virtually fly across the intervening space.

"Mom, Dad," Gordon began, as she pulled the fiftyish woman into a hug while reaching a hand towards the man. "It is so good to see you."

"It is wonderful to see you, too, Barbara," responded the woman. "I was so pleased when your father called and said you would be able to attend the ball."

By this time, Gordon had stepped away from her Mother to give her father a quick hug in turn. Then she took a step back to perform the introductions.

"Mom, Dad, this is my current partner, Chuck Bartowski. Chuck, these are my parents, James and Sarah Gordon."

As Chuck reached out his right hand to James, the older man asked, "So, Chuck, how long have you been with the F.B.I.?"

Before Chuck could respond, Gordon jumped back in. "Dad, Chuck isn't with the F.B.I. I am on a temporary assignment to help out another agency. It's all rather hush-hush."

The older Gordon nodded. "Okay, say no more. I have worked a few special cases like that down through the years and understand."

"Well, I didn't want to talk shop anyway," interjected Mrs. Gordon. "It is just nice to spend a little time with my daughter."

Chuck glanced at Diana, who towered over everyone else in their little group except him. Gordon stood five foot eight, the same as her father and a couple of inches more than her mother. But in heels Diana was easily Chuck's equal.

And height was certainly the only area where Chuck was Diana's equal. Diana was always so stunning that all conversations halted whenever she entered a room, but her current attire took her a notch beyond even that. She was wearing a floor-length ruby red gown that looked like it was being held on by magic. Her luxurious black hair was held back by a wide ornate clip that looked like a diamond tiara from some royal princess. Her only other jewelry was the wide silver heirloom bracelets that always adorned her forearms.

"Diana, it is good to see you again," stated Chuck with a nod of his head. "Are you a guest of the Gordon's?" Unless Diana had called Gordon to let her know she was going to be at this party, the only other likely source of her knowledge of that fact had to be Gordon's father.

"Yes, technically, I am their guest. But the real reason I am here is to get Bruce Wayne's help on a little project."

"You must not know Bruce, if you expect his help," stated the senior Gordon. "Unless, of course, you need help to get a date with a beautiful woman." This last was said with a quick glance to his daughter.

Gordon had never told Chuck whether she was 'out' with her parents and he hoped the situation wasn't going to turn awkward.

But Diana just displayed one of her dazzling smiles. "Oh, I don't need any help connecting with a beautiful woman." And as she finished speaking, she also shot a knowing glance in Gordon's direction.

Chuck couldn't help but glance in Gordon's direction, too, and her normal pale ivory cheekbones were now covered with a furious blush.

But Diana gracefully let the red head off the hook for the moment, as she continued, "But it is really a work related issue about which I need to speak to Mister Wayne."

"Did I hear my name?" asked a deep, almost gravelly voice from right behind Chuck's shoulder.

Chuck almost jumped. He was startled someone had managed to get that close to him without his even noticing. It used to happen to him a lot in the old days when he would be focused one hundred percent on solving some computer problem at work or sat enthralled before some computer game at home. But Gordon had been working on his situational awareness skills almost as much as his combat skills and it had been weeks since someone had caught him unawares. Was it the overwhelming presence of Diana Prince that had distracted him, or was Wayne as stealthy as some mythical Ninja?

"Bruce, it is good to see you again," stated the Police Commissioner, stepping forward and extending his hand. "I don't know if you remember, but this is my wife, Sarah, and my daughter, Barbara."

Wayne nodded in Mrs. Gordon's direction and then reached out to clasp Gordon's hand. "Barbara, it is good to see you again. What has it been - seven, eight years? I think you were a senior in high school the last time we met. What are you doing these days?"

"Yes," answered Gordon. "I was in high school the last time. I'm surprised you remember."

Wayne quirked a smile in her direction, "Oh, don't let all the stories about me fool you. I remember the important people like the Police Commissioner's daughter. And let me say I'm glad you take after your mother rather than your 'ugly as an old shoe' father."

Gordon grinned at Wayne's infamous charm. "Well, I do take after my father in one way. I am with the F.B.I. now."

Wayne looked at her for a moment and then nodded his head. "Good. I'm glad to see you are doing something important with your life like your father. The world is filled with too many bad people. If not for people like you Gordons, the world would be a much worse place."

As he finished speaking, Wayne flicked a glance in Chuck's direction. Immediately, Gordon made the introductions.

"Bruce, this is Chuck Bartowski, my partner on my current assignment and my escort for the evening."

"I hope I'm not your current assignment, Barbara," Wayne said with a small chuckle. "I promise I'll get Alfred working on all those unpaid parking tickets the first thing in the morning."

Then Wayne turned more fully in Chuck's direction and extended his hand. "Bruce Wayne."

All Chuck could think as he extended his hand was that this was the third Billionaire he had met in as many months. And a quick glance at Wayne's ten thousand dollar tuxedo and hundred thousand dollar designer watch told him he would never fit into the Billionaire boy's club.

"Chuck Bartowski," Chuck responded, as their hands approached.

And then, when their hands finally touched, Chuck 'flashed'.

End of Chapter Six.

Author's Note: Well, I had hoped to cover part of Sarah's parallel story in this chapter, but I had so much I wanted to do on the Chuck side of the story, it just didn't happen. Hopefully, we'll see more of Sarah in the next chapter.

Have a great day,

Duane


	7. Chapter 7

8/21/10

Chuck versus LuthorCorp

Chapter 7

Part 1

Sarah stared at her reflection in the mirror. Or what would have been her reflection in the good old days before she had received the green ring.

It had been three months since the ring had selected her back on Earth in the storage room deep within Fort Knox. And it had been fourteen days since the Guardians had finally held their conclave where her worthiness to be accepted into the Green Lantern Corp had been one of the items on the agenda. With a lot of hard work, preparation, and the support of a couple of Guardians, she had successfully argued her case.

So finally, after months of studying and nearly countless hours in the Hazard Simulation Facility rather than the real training she should have been undergoing, she had gotten her ring back. And it had almost surprised her that after only possessing the ring for three days before it had been taken away for seventy-six days, it still felt like the two of them had been connected almost forever. Even if she hadn't had physical possession of the ring, its semi-sentient A.I. system had been able to talk to her mind from time to time. And sometimes she wondered if it hadn't been the A.I.'s efforts that had swayed the Guardians, both by providing her the necessary data to support her argument and, she suspected, lobbying the Guardians directly.

But regardless of what had been the deciding factor, Sarah had the ring back now and she was determined to never be parted from it again.

And now that her training could really move forward, Kilowog, her mentor, had immediately begun field work. So here she was on the planet, Zerbon; the third planet they had visited in the last two weeks.

She had expected the training to focus on the 'weapon' side of the ring's capabilities, but Kilowog had surprised her. He contended projecting the giant green energy constructs were easy for anyone with the mental strength and willpower to be selected by the ring and therefore needn't be the focus of her training. And she had to agree based on her ability to create giant fists, flyswatters, and protective spheres within minutes of receiving the ring. Therefore most of their training involved mastering other aspects of the ring's powers.

So that was why Sarah now found herself staring into a mirror and looking at the large, sapphire-colored, gilled creature staring back at her. Today's training exercise involved the simultaneous use of several of the unique abilities bestowed by the ring, which was a test of her ability to stretch her willpower in multiple directions at once.

First, the ring allowed the user to change their physical size. Kilowog had told stories of being reduced to microscopic size for a couple of missions, but today wasn't going to be anything so extreme. Sarah had increased her size until she was nine feet tall and weighed three hundred twenty-five pounds. And she couldn't suppress a small smile as she glanced over at Kilowog, who was now shrunk to a mere four and a half feet and one hundred fifty pounds. It was fun to dwarf him for a change.

Second, this was a test of her ability to project a holographic disguise. This had turned out to be much harder to master than changing her size, as it seemed to continuously require an appreciable portion of her attention to maintain. It wasn't until her A.I. had shown her how to offload most of the task to it that she had been able to maintain a disguise while doing more than staring blankly at a mirror or a wall. As she turned her attention down at her hands, she was glad the disguise was just a very effective hologram. For it would have been extremely difficult to wear her ring, if the fully webbed hands she was seeing were real.

And finally, she had to maintain a force field which would allow her to breathe in this aquatic environment. It was hard to believe the Zerbonians had managed to develop a technologically advanced civilization completely underwater, but she had learned in her studies that far more improbable civilizations had developed across the last five billion years and 6.4 x 10^22 known stellar systems.

"Enough looking in the mirror, already," said Kilowog, although just like his appearance, his normal gravelly voice had been softened to match their disguises. "Your appearance will pass inspection for today's training exercise."

"And what is today's exercise?" asked Sarah, as she glided towards the room's exit in Kilowog's wake. And moving added one more aspect to the things she was controlling simultaneously through the ring's powers. Her external appearance might look Zerbonian, but her true body had never been optimized for movement underwater and therefore most of her forward motion was achieved through use of the ring rather than by stroking with her arms and legs.

Kilowog paused to look back at her and she once more had to work not to gape at his appearance. He now looked like a cross between Admiral Ackbar, the bug-eyed fish creature from 'Return of the Jedi', and the mythical Medusa with hundreds of squiggling tentacles in place of hair. She knew from what she had seen in the mirror that her outward appearance was similar and it was enough to send shivers down her spine. She knew Chuck would be eating up this adventure, but if she had known before she had put on the ring that she would end up looking like some fish creature from a late night horror show on a planet half way across the universe, she really wondered if she would have put it on.

And Sarah felt sort of disappointed she was still halfway across the universe from Earth. The Guardians had divided the known universe into 3600 sectors to each of which were assigned two Green Lanterns, plus, of course, the Green Lanterns 'without portfolio' who went wherever the need was the greatest. So when she had learned today's exercise was going to be on Zerbon, she had looked it up and discovered it was in sector 2816, the same as Earth, she had been so happy. If she wasn't allowed to go home yet, at least she would be in the immediate area. But then she had checked further and discovered how the Guardians divided up the Universe didn't follow any logic she could see. No, sector 2816 encompassed parts of, but not all of 25,612 galaxies. In fact, her own Milky Way galaxy was split between no less than 47 sectors. So even though Zerbon was in the same sector as Earth, she was still 425 million light years from home and though a light year was a unit of distance she had a hard time grasping, she knew it was one helluva long way.

And after three months of being stranded in a place millions of light years from home, she had to admit her homesickness was getting steadily worse rather than better. Oh, it wasn't like she had hundreds or even tens of close friends she missed talking to on a daily basis. No, her work and perhaps even her personality, if she was truthful with herself, precluded her from maintaining lots of long term relationships. But not seeing a single human for months was carrying things to the extreme. She would love to spend a few minutes in quiet conversation with Chuck, but she was almost ready to settle for a few minutes with Jeff and Lester, even if Lester would spend the whole time staring at her chest without a hint of remorse.

"We are here to assist the Zerbonians in an investigation," announced Kilowog, breaking through her thoughts of Earth and her meager handful of friends and acquaintances. "One of their leading scientists was found dead under suspicious circumstances and foul play is suspected. The Zerbonians are generally a peaceable race and this is potentially their first murder in over forty years, which is why the Lanterns have been called in."

For a moment Sarah couldn't help picturing an oversized version of one of the goldfish she had had as a girl. She hadn't had a 'green thumb' or whatever the equivalent term was for the ability of maintaining a thriving aquarium. No, in the two years she had had it before giving up; she had seen more than her fair share of dead fish floating upside down at the top of the tank or at the bottom partially eaten by the others. She shuddered at the thought of seeing a dead Zerbonian, even though she had seen a lot of dead humans during her tenure with the C.I.A.

Trying to force her mind back to the situation, Sarah asked, "If it's that important, why all the rigmarole with changing sizes and wearing disguises? I mean wouldn't it be more appropriate to appear in our normal Green Lantern gear to 'wave the flag' so to speak?"

Before Kilowog responded they passed out of the room they had been using and the abrupt drop-off once again took Sarah's breath away. She had used the ring's power to fly a few more times since the initial time during their escape from Fort Knox. And it had always been a case of lifting off from relatively level ground. However this time, while she wasn't exactly flying – more like some cross between flying and swimming, it felt like she had just stepped off a thousand foot cliff. A sense of falling sent her heart racing and she forced herself to focus on Kilowog's back to fight off the vertigo.

Went she felt a little more under control, she looked around. She had always thought of New York as a three dimensional city with its row after row of towering skyscrapers. But now she realized it was at best a two-and-a-half dimension city compared to this metropolis designed for swimmers. Every level of every structure had exits to the surrounding ocean and none of them, no matter how tall, contained a single elevator. And the design wasn't all tall buildings separated by uniform rows of streets. No, the structures were at least as tall as the Empire State Building back home, but they all flowed together in a freeform structure that reminded her of some spots she had seen in Australia's Great Barrier Reef when she had managed to dive there with Bryce three years earlier during a break between a couple of Far East assignments. Of course, there were a couple of big differences – everything here seemed to be scaled up by a factor of one hundred compared to what she had seen before and the shark-sized creatures she was seeing here were all civilized and quasi-humanoid.

"The Zerbonians are extremely xenophobic," Kilowog said in answer to her question through the communication channel provided by their rings. "From my experience, it is the same with most aquatic-based life forms. They simply don't look out towards the stars in the same way as air breathers. So while they have known about the existence of other civilizations for millennia, very few of them have ever ventured off planet. And most of them are even uncomfortable dealing face-to-face with members of other species. So, when members of the Corp need to be on-planet, we try to blend in."

As Kilowog led them away from their room and into one of the twisting and turning tunnels that served as thoroughfares here, Sarah tried to mull over his words. But she found her head swiveling around seemly of its own accord to help her take in all the almost impossible sights. When they had arrived from Oa in the green transport beam a mere twenty-five minutes earlier, there hadn't been time for sightseeing. No, Kilowog had been concerned about her ability to maintain an invisibility shield for any length of time after the shock of intergalactic translation. And while the invisibility shield was just a variation of the holographic disguise shield they were currently maintaining, it seemed to require ten or even twenty times the effort and willpower to hold in place.

When she had first learned of the invisibility aspect of the ring's power, it had sounded so cool, and it still was. But she knew Morgan would have gotten a lot bigger kick from it than she did. And she could just picture the first thing Morgan would do if he suddenly had the ability to become invisible – he would head straight for the Staples Center and the Laker Girls' locker room. For just a second she had to wonder what Chuck's first destination would be if he suddenly had that ability. A secret little voice in her head hoped it would be her bedroom or perhaps her shower with its clear glass door.

And abruptly she felt her eyes tear up as her thoughts drifted back to Chuck and her other friends. God, she so desperately yearned to go home. The ring was important to her and she understood she needed it and this training in how best to use it for the potential dangers she and her planet might one day face, but without anyone she truly cared about to share it with, it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain her enthusiasm.

At least being underwater behind a holographic disguise should hide her tears she thought with a small, rueful smile, as she fought to get herself under control by focusing on their surroundings. They were just exiting the tunnel they had been following and as they swam out into the sprawling space beyond, Sarah realized it was much more brilliantly lit then the location from where they had begun. Glancing up, she saw the sparkling, frothy surface of the water a mere hundred feet away. Apparently, the twisting, turning tunnel they had been following had trended up.

Kilowog immediately set off on a diagonal, slightly downward course that indicated he knew exactly where he was going. Sarah wasn't sure if this meant he had been here before, or if he had received instructions, or if it was another ability of the ring she hadn't yet learned.

Quickly they approached a massive structure that seemed to stand slightly apart from the other structures she had seen. And somehow, even if it was millions of light years from home, it still managed to radiate a feeling of power and authority.

"What is this place?" asked Sarah, as they approached the imposing edifice.

"It is the regional government center. They don't have anything quite like police or police stations or morgues like you are probably used to. So this is where they have brought the body for our inspection."

Apparently there wasn't going to be any way of avoiding looking at the body, thought Sarah as she followed Kilowog through the structure's largest entrance. Just inside they were met by a Zerbonian of similar size and coloring to what Kilowog was displaying in his current disguise. As soon as he began speaking, Sarah discovered he was also male and suddenly she realized this species was like some of the insect species back home; the females were all about twice the size of the males.

After the introductions were made, their guide turned and swam deeper into the structure. As they followed, Sarah asked through their communication link, "Kilowog, why did we have to adjust our physical size? I mean the holographic images we are projecting would work just as well if we were our ordinary size."

Kilowog glanced over at her, although the hologram obscured most of the gesture and turned it into a mere swiveling of the nearer eye on its somewhat protruding eyestalk. "My experience is that a sense of size is important in how we interact with others. I am sure you have experienced how you behave subtly different with people who are much shorter or taller than yourself, for example when dealing with much larger opponents. Your size colors your response whether you are fully aware of it on a conscious level or not. On this world the female is the dominant half of the species and you need to subconsciously project the appropriate body language when dealing with the Zerbonians. The ring will do its part with the disguises, but I find being of the right physical scale helps maintain the proper frame of mind."

Sarah quickly read between the lines and grinned, although she wasn't sure how the grin would be filtered through her disguise or even if it could. The Zerbonians' faces certainly weren't as mobile or fluid as her own.

"Are you saying I'm in charge while we are here?"

"You will have to project the image of being in charge," answered Kilowog. "Fortunately, a female would never deign to interact with any male except her own consort. And since the males attend to most of the mundane tasks of the civilization, you probably won't have to deal with anyone directly while we are here."

Sarah couldn't keep the mirth out of her voice as she responded. "So the men do all the drudge jobs here? I think I am beginning to like this world."

But her brief vision of what life would be like back home if Chuck, Casey, and all the other guys kowtowed to her slightest whim quickly faded as their guide led them into the chamber with the body.

Due to its dorsal fins, the body was lying partially twisted on its side on top of a table rather than flat on its back like a human would in a morgue back home. And it was large, at least as large as herself, which made it female. Sarah remembered Kilowog's earlier comment about the victim being a leading scientist, so obviously scientific work was not beneath the females of the species.

Slowly Sarah circled the table. The first thing that registered were the straps holding the body down – of course unlike back home gravity alone might not be sufficient to hold the body in place in this aquatic environment.

And then the next thing she noticed was the large gash in the creature's side, a large wound from which fluids were still oozing before slowly dispersing into the surrounding water. Sarah was suddenly thankful for the ring's force field. She had been in enough morgues in her life for the distinct overpowering antiseptic smell to spring to mind. But then she realized here it wouldn't be smell but taste that would be involved, if she was actually a water-breather like these creatures. She almost gagged at the thought as she glanced at the guide and realized he was hanging well back by the entrance and that the room had a distinct current moving away from the doorway and towards a large vent in the opposite wall.

"So, are you ready to speak to the dead?" asked Kilowog.

"What?" exclaimed Sarah, as she turned to her mentor. An extremely creepy chill was suddenly running down her spine.

"The ring can reconnect and reactivate the synapses of a brain that hasn't been dead for more than a few hours. You just need to rest your hand on her forehead and, like everything else, with the proper exertion of your will through the ring, it will happen. It is the quickest way to discover what caused her death."

Sarah's gaze swung between the body and her ringed hand. She had absolutely no desire to touch the dead creature let alone try to reach into its mind.

For a moment she was frozen in place and her thoughts flickered back to the day she had met Lana Lang, the day that had ultimately turned out to be her own last day on Earth for the foreseeable future. When she had seen Lana throw around large men in the stained glass store without even touching them, it had been so bizarre and unexpected it had felt like her life had jumped into the Twilight Zone. But now here she was millions of light years from home looking like some grotesque parody of a mermaid and about to reach into the mind of a dead alien. What she wouldn't give to go back to the now seemingly simple life of witches and metahumans!

Part 2

Chuck stared out through one of the ten foot tall, panoramic windows lining the west wall of Lana's condo. The sun was just setting and from here on the nineteenth floor of the building a sliver of ocean was visible along the western horizon. And for the moment the sliver was a blindingly bright orange as though it was on fire.

It was less than twenty-four hours since he, Gordon, and Casey had returned from Gotham City. Lana had invited them over for dinner so she could get an update on their search for the elusive Lex Luthor.

After the events at Fort Knox and since she was the former Mrs. Lex Luthor, General Beckman had agreed to let them pool resources with Lana on this one aspect of the Intersect mission. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, that left a lot of gray area. Surprisingly, Gordon had gone with an extremely liberal interpretation, but then it might be one more aspect of her F.B.I background versus the C.I.A., N.S.A., and military intelligence backgrounds of everyone Chuck had dealt with before she joined the team.

Chuck wondered if the liberal interpretation was going to extend to Bruce Wayne and Wayne Industries. He had been momentarily shocked when he had flashed on Wayne during the gala ball at his palatial home, but then once he thought about it; he realized he shouldn't have been surprised. Like Lana Lang and Oliver Queen, probably every billionaire in the country would rate a mention in the Intersect. And all three, who were the only billionaires he had ever met, had their fingers in various areas of high-tech research that truly warranted their inclusion.

And Wayne Industries seemed to be involved in even more bleeding edge technologies than either Queen Industries or LuthorCorp. Nanotech, fusion power, stealth and camouflage materials tech, A.I. research, advanced communication theory – Wayne Industries was heavily involved with them all.

Most worrisome was the fact his 'flash' had brought to light several possible connections between Wayne Industries' subsidiary companies and some of the technology used in the warbots they had encountered at Fort Knox – connections never previously uncovered even after three months of research by the General's staff.

Was Wayne involved with the people who had made a play that night for the Green Lantern ring? Or had someone merely contracted certain details of the design and fabrication of the bots to his companies, much in the same way some of it had come from Queen Industries?

Since Diana had been at the gala, too, and she had been looking for Wayne's assistance in some of her work, Chuck took it to be a sign Wayne might be one of the 'good guys'. However Diana had her own agenda, which she had never fully explained, so there was certainly the possibility she knew Wayne wasn't one of the 'good guys', but was using him anyway.

Chuck sighed and turned away from the window after the sun dropped the rest of the way below the horizon. Nothing had been clear and simple since the day he got saddled with the Intersect, so he shouldn't have been surprised Wayne's status wasn't obvious either.

"Dinner's ready," called Lana from the far side of the room.

Chuck couldn't help but glance around again as he turned in the direction of the dining table. The condo had an open floor plan to maximize the feeling of space. The dining area was at one end of the living room, not unlike his apartment. But the comparison ended there. This dining/living room combination had to measure at least forty by forty feet compared to the similar twelve by sixteen foot space in his apartment. And the walls of his apartment were covered by cheap framed posters, mostly movie posters from classic sci-fi and horror shows. But Lana's walls were adorned with real works of art like something straight from the Getty.

He had just reached the table, at roughly the same moment as Lana and Gordon arrived from the kitchen and Casey arrived from the liquor cabinet carrying an expensive looking glass filled with some rich amber-colored liquor, when Lana's cell phone began to ring. It was playing the 'I Dream of Jeannie' theme song Chuck knew indicated the call was from her friend Chloe Sullivan. Less than five seconds later, before Lana even had time to set down the platter of 'Swordfish a la Siciliana' she was carrying to free up a hand, Gordon and Casey's phones also began to trill.

Something must be going on, thought Chuck. Whatever it was, he was almost a little annoyed no one felt he rated a similar call.

He stared expectantly at the others and Lana was the first one to respond. But rather than saying anything, she dashed across the room and grabbed up the remote for the 102" plasma TV mounted on the far wall. Being a geek at heart, it had been that TV which had impressed him the most the first time he had entered Lana's condo.

It took fifteen seconds for the giant display to come to life and then Lana immediately switched it to CNN and hit the record button on the attached DVR.

The customary CNN icon was displayed in the lower right corner of the image. The lower left corner stated 'Live from Metropolis'. But none of them noticed these standard attributes of all news channels. No, what absorbed all of their attention was the central image of Lex Luthor standing at a small podium in front of some high rise office building. With the time zone difference, it had to be 10 P.M. in Metropolis, but Luthor was well-lit by floodlights indicating this was some planned event. And, from what Lana had told him over the last few months about Luthor's personality; it made sense. If he was announcing his apparent return from the dead, he would time it to coincide with the late night news' time slot for the East coast and the Midwest.

". . . and finally I want to thank you for attending on such short notice. The upcoming days should be an exciting time for the city of Metropolis and the entire country. Once again, thank you," Lex Luthor was saying in conclusion, as the sound kicked in. There was a clamor of questions from the assembled reporters, but Luthor just gave a polite nod and wave before stepping back from the podium.

Lana stared almost in shock at the image of Lex on the screen. She had always suspected he was still alive. Gordon and her team had finally gotten forensic evidence to support her case. But it wasn't the same thing as seeing him in the flesh.

And Lex looked like his old self. There hadn't been any photos of Lex since before the events up in the Artic, but rumor had it he had been severely injured and permanently maimed. But that obviously wasn't the case now. Immediately, her thoughts flashed to her Prometheus nanosuit. Was Lex now equipped with one or something similar? Or had all the rumors been a simple ruse initiated by Lex to convince his enemies he and his situation were weaker than they really were?

Since they had missed the gist of Lex's remarks, as he had obviously announced more than his simple return, Lana was about to hit the rewind on the DVR to back it up to the beginning when she saw Lex walk over to join two people standing at the edge of the small raised area behind the podium. Immediately, she hit the pause button rather than the rewind button on the remote.

The pair were a middle aged man and a young girl of perhaps fourteen or fifteen. The man didn't ring any bells with her, but the girl looked startlingly familiar. It was one of those weird times were the person looked almost too familiar to fully register, so it was Casey who was the first to speak.

"Damn, except for the dark red hair, the girl could be a younger version of you, Lana."

Lana stared at the image and realized he was right. With the slightly asymmetric features all faces possess, it was more like looking at a photo of herself rather than the image she saw every day in the mirror. And between that and the auburn hair, she hadn't instantly made the connection.

"Why the hell would Lex be parading a clone of me around in public? I know he has the technology to do it, as I stole an earlier clone from him when I needed to fake my death to get away from him. So a select few of us know he has the tech, but why be so blatant about it? Certainly someone who sees this footage is going to make the connection and start asking questions."

Chuck, too, had been staring at the image of the girl. And then abruptly a detail from the 'flash' he experienced on the first day he had met Lana all those months ago popped to the front of his mind. Without even thinking it through, he simply blurted it out.

"I don't think that's a clone. I think she's your daughter."

Lana, Gordon, and Casey all turned away from the screen and stared at Chuck.

"Daughter?" asked Lana in a small, momentarily uncomprehending voice. "I don't have a daughter."

"Remember when you told me about your miscarriage way back on the first day we met? The Intersect contains conflicting data supporting three different versions of the events. The first version indicated you never had a miscarriage and the pregnancy was strictly a fabrication to get Lex to marry you. The second version indicated you had been pregnant and cloning technology had been involved. The third version hinted the fetus had been at least partially alien and had been removed and re-implanted in a secret host to be brought to term."

"And you're just telling me this now?" demanded Lana in a tone close to anger. Although whether she was angry with Chuck or Lex or herself wasn't clear.

Chuck gave a small shrug while a hangdog expression spread across his face. "Sorry, but at the time I didn't know if you were one of the good guys and I couldn't reveal the information without revealing the Intersect. Then, well, nothing ever came up again to trigger that memory. Sorry."

"Lana, you're what? 24? How could you have a fifteen year old daughter?" asked Casey in a quiet voice.

They all turned back to look at the image frozen on the screen.

"My miscarriage or at least what I thought was a miscarriage was only three years ago. Lex must have used some of his cloning tech to accelerate her growth."

"Wait a second," interrupted Gordon. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. All we have is some obscure reference from the Intersect that you might not have had a miscarriage. It's a big jump to say the girl is your daughter."

"No," said Lana with a small shake of her head. "I simply 'know' Chuck is right. She is my daughter."

"If you believe that part, then what about the other part stating she is at least partially alien?" asked Gordon.

Lana backed up a couple of steps and sank heavily into the deep leather sofa as the enormity of the situation suddenly hit her. She had suspected some of it at the time, but after she lost the baby she had forced herself not to think about it. But if Chuck knew about the alien aspect from an alternate source, then her worst fears were probably true.

Lana lowered her head into her hands before starting to speak in a quiet voice.

"That second part, about her being partially alien is probably true, too." Lana began. Then she forced her eyes up to meet the others before continuing. "Do you remember Black Thursday? She was conceived on that day.

"I don't think the true events of Black Thursday were ever completely known by anyone except myself and Lex, although a couple of my friends were involved and know some parts. And until now I didn't think Lex had any memories of the events, but obviously if he used the miscarriage as a cover to steal my unborn daughter, then he has known all along."

Lana climbed back to her feet and began to pace back and forth in front of the image still frozen on the TV. Sometimes walking helped her think and she had a lot to get straight in her head while she explained, as best she could, to the others.

"Chuck and Casey saw the Green Lanterns who escorted Sarah away, so they know aliens exist. Gordon you are going to have to trust me for the moment, but there are other aliens out there who from time to time visit Earth. And some of them are scarily powerful.

"One member of the race I am thinking of, they are called Kryptonians, took possession of Lex's mind, beginning a couple of days before Black Thursday. And while this being, his name was Zod, was in control of him, Lex's body manifested all the abilities of a native-born Kryptonian. If Lex's body possessed all their unique abilities of speed and strength and everything else, then it is not unbelievable he might be able to pass along those gifts to any offspring he produced during that time period."

"What was he trying to achieve on Black Thursday?" asked Casey, as he once again thought back to the events he had witnessed in Star City over three hundred miles from the epicenter in Metropolis.

"He was beginning the process of terraforming the Earth into a second Krypton. If he hadn't been stopped, he would have happily wiped out most of the human race leaving only a select few to act as personal slaves. He was also intending to use me and a few others as breeding stock to replenish the Kryptonian race."

"Why did he need to replenish his race?" asked Chuck. Lana had said almost no one knew the true story behind the events on Black Thursday and she had been right. All they had heard in L.A. was how Metropolis and the surrounding area had simultaneously experienced earthquakes from never-before-suspected fault lines and freak weather conditions which spawned over three hundred category 4 and 5 twisters within a hundred mile radius.

"The Kryptonian home world was destroyed as a result of a civil war. Only a handful of individuals, who were off-world at the time, survived."

"And how was he stopped on Black Thursday?" asked Chuck.

Lana pondered how to respond for a few seconds. It wasn't her place to divulge Clark's secret. When he was ready to go public, if that day ever came, it would have to be his decision. Still, her new friends were going to have to know at least part of the truth if they were going to be prepared for what she suspected her daughter might be capable of doing.

And Lana couldn't help but wonder what ideas Lex had been feeding into their daughter's mind. Was she going to be loyal to Lex and do whatever he requested? If she had even a fraction of the gifts Lana could imagine, she would be an unbelievably powerful asset for Lex in whatever mad scheme he was currently dreaming up. And she had to wonder if the girl even knew of Lana's existence. Getting in touch with the girl had just moved to the very top of her personal agenda.

Finally, Lana forced her thoughts back to Chuck's question. "There is another Kryptonian living on Earth, but I am not at liberty to divulge his identity. He was the one who ultimately defeated Zod, the Kryptonian in possession of Lex's body."

Gordon, who had been mostly listening and trying to comprehend the situation, now spoke up. "Lana, worst case scenario – what kind of abilities are we talking about for the girl?"

"Ah, the term 'god-like' comes to mind," began Lana with a small shake of her head. "Zod could fly and not just fly, but fly unbelievably fast like New York to L.A. in under a second. He was incredibly strong - as in picking up the Empire State Building and tossing it into outer space. He had heat vision which could burn through a foot thick block of steel in an instant. He had x-ray vision allowing him to see through solid objects and enhanced hearing at least a thousand times better than any human. As I said - 'god-like'."

Chuck stared at Lana, as his mind raced. He had read a lot of comic books in his time and he couldn't remember any single fictional superhero having so many gifts. And then just like that he remembered the conversation between Lana and Oliver Queen when they had all been across the road from Fort Knox and the giant spider robots had started parachuting down. One of them, he wasn't certain which but thought it was Queen, had made a comment about needing Clark and his big guns. The comment hadn't made any sense at the time, but suddenly the equation 'big guns equals god-like' made sense. Could the mysterious 'Clark' Lana had referred to on several occasions be the unnamed Kryptonian?

But now wasn't the time or place to bring it up since Lana obviously didn't want to divulge his identity. So instead, Chuck decided it might be best to try to lighten things up a bit.

"Is that all?" asked Chuck. "And here I thought we might be going up against someone really scary."

"She's my daughter, Chuck. I don't want to go up against her at all," responded Lana.

And saying 'she's my daughter' triggered another aspect of the situation that hadn't yet occurred to Lana. The girl was her daughter, which meant she might have also inherited the magical abilities which ran down the female line in her family. Lana herself hadn't ever accessed them except when Isobel was in control of her body, but the magic was there. And magic was one thing even Clark wasn't immune to. No, if the girl had inherited most or all of Zod's abilities plus Isobel's magic, she would be virtually unstoppable. One more reason, she needed to get in touch with her daughter before things escalated out of control.

"And that might not be all," continued Lana. "Those are the potential things she could have inherited from Zod. She also could have inherited special abilities from me." Lana paused to recall some of the things Isobel had done while the witch had been in control of her body. "She could be able to cast spells to control people's minds or inflict pain from a distance. She could be able to transmute metals. She could be able to travel through the astral planes. Hell, anything ever attributed to witches or wizards might be within her reach."

"Shit!" exclaimed Casey and the others couldn't do anything but nod in agreement.

Lana couldn't imagine how the situation could be any worse, but then her phone again began playing the 'I dream of Jeannie' theme song.

"Hey, Chloe," began Lana trying to keep the rising panic out of her voice.

"Lana, did you see who was there with Lex?" asked Chloe.

"You mean the girl? Yeah, we saw her and I think I know who she is," began Lana before she was interrupted by Chloe.

"No, not the girl," interjected Chloe.

Lana could hear the fear in her best friend's voice. Even without the advantage of Clark's gifts or her own nanosuit, almost nothing flustered the unflappable Chloe Sullivan. But Lana could hear panic in the other girl's voice she had never heard before.

"Lana, the other man with Lex, he's . . . he's Dr. Curtis Knox."

Now Lana understood Chloe's panic. Knox had tried to harvest organs from Chloe's Kryptonite altered body to rejuvenate his dying wife. And during Clark's search for Chloe's abductor, he had found evidence Knox was some kind of immortal. He had found photos, paintings, and sketches of the doctor extending into the distant past. And Knox always appeared to be associated with the most vile, ruthless rulers down through history. Hitler, Ivan the Terrible, Maximilien Robespierre, Elizabeth Bathory, Vlad Tepes, Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun – there was evidence Knox had been associated with all of them under an assortment of names. And now he was associated with Lex.

Perhaps things could get worse!

End of Chapter 7

Author's Notes

As I was writing the section about Sarah, a scene from near the beginning of many James Bond movies kept flashing through my head. It's the scene where Q would explain to Bond all the gadgets you would see later in the movie. I tried to spice up this part of the chapter in an attempt to make it more interesting, but like in the Bond movies, it felt necessary to me. Most of the animated movies I have seen that include the Green Lantern seem to focus almost exclusively on the giant green energy constructs and don't explore many of the other abilities attributed to the ring. There is a pretty long list of abilities available on wiki. I went through the list and selected a number of them I felt would be interesting to explore. I could have waited and sprung them on the reader later in the story, but I thought it would be better to introduce some of them now so it wouldn't be a case of 'where did that come from' later. Sarah is, after all, going through training now.

I think we will see Sarah in training situations once or twice more before she returns to Earth. There are a couple of other abilities and limitations I want to address plus the story hasn't quite reached the right spot for her return.

As usual, when I started this story I had no real idea where it was going to go. But now it is a lot clearer in my head. This is going to be my version of the Justice League origin story. And the situation needs to be pretty dire when none of the big guns - Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, or the Green Lantern thinks they can handle the situation alone and they are forced to band together. So while Lex Luthor, his daughter, and Curtis Knox (Vandal Savage) are pretty scary, I think we need a little more to make the bad guys feel like more of a threat than any of the Justice Leaguers could handle individually.

And speaking of Lex's daughter, it is interesting how a character who has never appeared on Smallville or in any of the Superman movies keeps creeping into my stories. Different variations of her have appeared in 'Kandor', 'Biological Families', and now here. I seem to have a real fascination with her. I think this is going to be my most powerful version of her yet. If she has inherited both Kryptonian strengths and magical powers, she is one of the few adversaries with the real potential to defeat Superman!

As always, I look forward to any thoughts or suggestions you would like to share.

Have a great day,

Duane


End file.
